Bows, Swords, Lightning Bolts, Oh My! Part 2
by ArtemisFrimm
Summary: Kronos begins putting his plan to come back to life in action with the help of some deadly creatures. Gods go missing and Percy must team up once again with the moon goddess to save the day. Name changed back to original
1. Where are my pants?

Heyy everyone, I just wanted to thank you all for the amaizing reviews you have left in my last ff. SO here you go... the sequel, I know this chapter isn't super long, but in a way this is just the intro... as always, I hope you enjoy!

~ArtemisFrimm

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You know what sucks? Being away on a quest that pretty much turned out to be a wild-goose-chase just so Kronos's 'secret weapon' aka Kat could get strong enough to destroy the gods and help with the uprising of the titans, then coming back to find out that my girlfriend decided to reorganize my entire cabin while I was away which basically makes it impossible to find anything. Yea, that sucks big time.

A few months had passed since the winter solstice. It's now March 19th and the Vernal Equinox is tomorrow, and so is the emergency Council of the Gods meeting. Apparently the Council wanted me to be present so I could tell them everything I know about Kat (You know what's funny? The fact that I already told them about Kronos's 'secret weapon' last time I was at the Council meeting, and Zeus and most of the other gods didn't give a damn.). So, why do the gods want me at their emergency meeting you may ask? Or wait, better question; why have an emergency meeting in the first place? Well you see, since Kat became Kronos's 'secret weapon', a lot of the minor gods have been going missing: Eris, Hebe, Eros, Nike, my dad's wife Amphrite, Hephaestus's son Palici, Hermes' mother Maia, one of Apollo's muses Clio, and just recently Persephone on her way back from the Underworld.

So, now I'm packing to go to Olympus, and possibly another quest and I can't find any of my pants because Annabeth 'reorganized'. I've basically been wearing Camp Half-Blood pajama pants and the jeans that I wore on my last quest for the past three months. And I'd really prefer not to go to the Council meeting wearing bright orange pajama pants seeing as I was wearing pajamas the last time I saw gods.

I don't know why Annabeth had to organize my entire cabin. I had a place for everything and everything _was_ in its place, but now I have no idea where anything is!

A knock on my door interrupted my train of thoughts. I opened my door to find Annabeth smiling at me. She leaned towards me and gave me a quick kiss before she walked into my cabin.

"Hey Seaweed brain, packing for the Council meeting?" she asked noticing my duffel bag.

I nodded, "Yup." I said glumly, "Everything's right there." I said (everything _but_ my pants)

Annabeth looked surprised, "Why, don't you want to go?" she asked.

I shrugged, "They probably just want me there so they can give me grief about not telling them about Katrina even though I tried to. Then they'll probably have me go on another stupid quest for something that I _didn't_ do."

Annabeth shook her head, "C'mon Percy, I doubt it'll be that bad. They probably just want to know as much as they can about Katrina and the titans uprising."

"Either way, I'll still probably end up being forced to go on another quest." I said.

Annabeth was quiet for a moment then she looked at me, "Pants." She said.

"What?" I asked her trying to catch up with where her train of thought was going.

She looked at me her eyes full of amusement, "You forgot to pack pants." She laughed.

Annabeth had showed me where she had put my pants and I got them packed into my duffel bag (She told me that common sense should've told me to look for my pants in my dresser. Oops.). It was now March 20th, the day of the meeting and I was waiting at the top of Half-Blood Hill for Argus to drive me to the Empire State Building. Annabeth and Chiron were waiting with me (Grover had an emergency satyr meeting and was away).

Finally Argus pulled up driving the camp van. Annabeth gave me a hug, "Good luck Seaweed brain." She said.

Chiron came forward, "Good luck Percy, and may the gods be with you." He said kindly. I nodded and waved to Annabeth and then got into the van.

After about twenty minutes, we had arrived at the Empire State Building also known as Mount Olympus. I looked at Argus and he gave me a small nod, telling me to go in. I sighed, "Can I leave my duffel bag in the van?"

Argus shook his head. I sighed and picked up my duffel bag and walked in through the front doors. I must have looked pretty strange to the other people in the lobby based on the way they were all staring at me.

I walked up to the front desk, "Umm, I need to get to the 600th floor." I said. I always hate saying that because I know I sound crazy when I say it.

"No such floor kid." The man said to me.

I sighed, "It's me, Percy Jackson, destroyer of Kronos, ring a bell?" I asked.

The man gave me a weak smile, "Sorry kid, I forgot. You know what to do." He said as he handed me the key card.

I pressed to elevator button and the elevator doors opened. I walked in and a man with a suit on tried to follow me. I pressed the button and the doors began to close, "Sorry, this elevator's out of order." I lied.

The man scowled at me but the doors were already closed. I pulled out the key and inserted it in the security slot. 600th floor, here I come.

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Well here you go chapter one of the sequel I hope you enjoyed I'll update when I can thanks!

~ArtemisFrimm


	2. Meet me on the Equinox

Heyy everyone, I hope you are all having a fabulous summer... Unless of course it's not summer where you are... anyway... I hope you enjoy this very fast update. I don't really know when I'll be able to update again because I'm going to be a very busy person these next few weeks but I'll update when I can. Oh and thank you so much for the reviews, both for this story and my first one, they really make my day. **DISCLAIMER TIME! I DO _NOT_ OWN PERCY JACKSON IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM (UNLESS YOU COUNT OWNING THE BOOKS...) **oh, and Rick Riordan is coming out with a new series that take place after the pjo series I it's coming out in fall can't wait! Well on with the chapter!

~ArtemisFrimm

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I walked towards the halls of Mount Olympus and set my duffel bag behind a pillar outside of the throne room. I couldn't help but noticed that the streets of Olympus, which were usually full of minor gods and nymphs were empty (All because the gods didn't want to listen!).

Trying to control my temper, I walked into the throne room. The gods, all in giant form, were sitting in there respective thrones and were talking amongst themselves. The only god I noticed was missing was Apollo, even Hades was here.

Aphrodite was the first of the immortals to notice me. She got a flirtatious smile on her face and waved to me, "Oh, hello Percy." She said glamorously. I felt my face flush. I hated how she could make me feel so flustered.

Zeus noticed me also, "Ah, Perseus, you're here. Now we can start our meeting."

By now, all of the gods were quiet. I noticed Artemis look around the room, "What about Apollo?" she asked.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes, "Oh pftt, he probably got distracted by some pretty mortal girl." She laughed, "Nothing worth waiting for." She said to Artemis who was glaring at her.

"He probably just forgot about the meeting, that's all." Hermes said reassuringly, "He's probably still with the muses, fiddling around on his lyre."

Zeus sighed, "Fine, Hermes could you go get him please."

Hermes nodded, "Right-o." He winked at me, and in a flash he was gone.

A few minutes later, Hermes was back. Artemis looked at him, "Well, where is he?" she asked.

Hermes laughed nervously, "Well, it's odd. Uh, you know how one of his muses, Clio, I think it was went missing?" he asked, "Well, Urania told me that Apollo had a prophecy or 'saw' where Clio was. She told me that he was going to pick her up and then head to Olympus. She said he wanted to get here early." Hermes said.

Artemis had a look of confusion on her face, as did many of the other gods save for Aphrodite who I guess was still convinced that Apollo had found a pretty mortal girl, "When did Urania say he left?" Artemis asked.

"That's what's really strange; she said he left two days ago." Hermes replied.

Aphrodite rolled her eyes in exasperation, "Like I said, Apollo probably just met some cute mortal girl and they're probably off making love somewhere."

Artemis stood up and drew her bow, "Why you sick little shrew. Don't ever talk about my brother that way!" She said her voice was low and dangerous.

Ares stood up, he had his knife in his hand and his eyes were red coals. "You wanna go you little bitch? No on threatens my lady!"

Hephaestus shook his head, "Your lady?" He grumbled to Ares, "Last time I checked she wasn't your wife."

I was beginning to get a little nervous, the gods all looked like they would start an all-out gods war right now, and frankly I'd rather not be stuck in the middle of it.

"No one asked for your opinion gimpy!" Ares snarled.

"Ares! How dare you talk to your brother like that?" Hera asked looking mildly surprised.

I noticed my dad was sitting back in his chair looking annoyed, and Zeus looked furious. Athena seemed to be the only god who looked relatively calm.

Zeus stood up, "**SILENCE**!" He shouted.

The room got instantly quiet. There was an awkward silence that thankfully Athena filled, "Why don't we try contacting Apollo via IM?" she said calmly.

Artemis nodded and sat back down in her throne, looking mildly ashamed.

Athena pulled out a drachma then looked at my dad, "Lord Poseidon, a little mist would be helpful." She said.

My dad nodded, and with a snap of his fingers, a cloud of mist appeared in the air. He glanced at me and winked. That would be pretty cool to learn.

Artemis stood up and opened the window letting a ray of sunshine. Once a rainbow appeared, Athena tossed in the drachma, "Iris, show us Apollo."

The IM just went fuzzy kind of like when your TV doesn't have a signal. Suddenly an automated recording of Iris's voice played, "_I'm sorry, _Athena, _the person you have tried to reach is unavailable and or cannot be found. Thank you and have a shimmering day! XOXO Iris."_

Artemis looked concerned and turned to her father, "Father…"

Zeus sighed, "Artemis, I'm sure he's fine, there is absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Isn't that what you told my sister when she told you she was being followed, and before you knew it she was gone?" Ares said dangerously.

Aphrodite began tearing up, "That's what you told my son too!"

"Father…" Artemis said looking concerned. Honestly, I didn't know she cared about her brother _that _much.

"Artemis, he's probably just off with some mortal girl like Aphrodite said. We'll just have to start the meeting without him; we're running out of time. You could always fill him in later." Zeus said evenly.

Hades sighed, looking rather annoyed, "Look _Zeus_," he spat, "Unless something is going to be done about my wife, I have no interest in being here."

Demeter looked upset too, "Yes, what about my daughter?" she asked. The other gods began adding things and arguing too. This Council meeting was turning into chaos.

I figured I might as well say what I needed to say about Kat so I could get the heck out of here. I tried clearing my throat but no one was paying attention to me. I knew that interrupting the gods would be rude but I also had no idea as to how to get their attention. I rolled my eyes because I know I looked ridiculous, but I raised my hand like I was supposed to in school.

Zeus stood up, "**SILENCE! THE NEXT GOD OR GODDESS TO SAY ANYTHING OUT OF TERM CAN LEAVE NOW**!" he thundered (no pun intended, although the room did smell strongly of ozone after that).

The gods instantly grew quiet. Zeus sighed, then looked at me, which instantly made me feel nervous, "Perseus Jackson, what do you know about the titans uprising?" he asked.

Trying to control my temper, I re-told them everything I knew about Kat and Kronos and what they were planning.

Demeter looked ready to cry, "But why kidnap my daughter and some of the other minor gods."

"Maybe to force them to join Kronos's cause," Athena said thoughtfully, "Or perhaps as a blackmail sort of thing. It seems as if he has already taken from all of us someone we seem to know or care about. Lord Poseidon's wife was taken a few weeks ago; Lord Ares' sister was taken shortly after that, then Aphrodite's son, Hera, your daughter Hebe was taken if I'm not mistaken." Hera nodded and Athena continued, "Hephaestus your son Palici was taken as was Nike who we know is a close friend of mine. Persephone and one of Apollo's muses were taken and now Apollo himself is gone."

It was my dad who spoke up, "But why blackmail? That is a tactic he has never used before and it doesn't sound like something he would do."

"He does have the girl Katrina working for him, it's possible that she has something to do with the disappearances." Artemis pointed out.

Zeus sighed, "Well I guess it's settled that we need to get the minor gods out of Kronos's grasp, we already know the extent of the damage they could cause if they were to join Kronos's forces. We will need to try to prevent a war if possible." He turned to me and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that I knew what he was going to say next, "Percy, how would you like to go on another quest?"

I sighed, "I don't really have a choice do I?" Oh the joys of being a demigod.

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Well there you have it folks, Apollo's gone missing as have to other minor gods and now it's up to Percy to save the day... again. Thanks again!

~ArtemisFrimm


	3. Death and all his friends

Jolajola happy internet goers. How are you all doing today? Good? Great? Well that's lovely. I love how in a few reviews there was aww, poor percy, or aww, poor Apollo, but no one said aww, poor Hephaestus... Ares called him gimpy, that jerk! Funny story, that was actually my nickname when I sprained my knee lol. Anywhoo, I've decided to start naming the chapters based on songs on my ipod that kinda go with the content of the chapter. Original huh? Well anyway I hope you like this chapter, it was pretty long actually so yea I hope you likeeee!

~ArtemisFrimm

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I would be staying in Olympus until tomorrow when I would leave for the quest. Argus would drive Annabeth up tomorrow because she was allowed to join me on the quest.

It was odd, the first time I came to Olympus, there were no bedrooms so I assumed that no one slept in Olympus, but now that the sun had set and night was approaching, different sized and shaped condos seemed to be appearing everywhere I turned.

I was following a minor goddess to my room for the night. The goddess looked about nine years old and had introduced herself as Lethe. I didn't know much about her, but I did know a bit about the river in Hades that she was named after. Anyone who came into contact with the river of Lethe would suffer from forgetfulness, and I was starting to understand why the river was named after her.

The goddess, for the immortal life of her couldn't remember where my room was for the night. We had passed the same statue of Athena for the third time and I was beginning to lose my patience. She turned to me. "Oh for Zeus's sake where in Hades is your room?" I could tell she was getting frustrated, I guess that had to be tough, being the goddess of forgetfulness.

"Maybe I could just ask someone else to show me to my room."

Her eyes widened with alarm. "No, no, no. I promised Lord Zeus that I'd be able to show you to your room, and I can't let him down." Tears had begun to form in her eyes.

I let out a long sigh, "Okay do you by any chance remember what my room number is?"

Lethe thought for a moment, "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney!"

I groaned. "Isn't that from _Finding Nemo_?"

"Oh yea, I forgot, that's my favorite movie about fishes you know!"

I groaned._ Man today sucked big time._

Lethe sighed, "I'm so sorry. I never should have told Lord Zeus that I could find your room. I should have known that I would never remember a large room number like 92036 on Olympus Avenue." I looked at her for a moment before her face lit up, "Hey!"

After Lethe remembered my room address we had no problem finding my room. I learned one thing about Lethe today, she could either really annoy you or really make you laugh, the rest of the way to my apartment she kept singing 'I didn't let Zeus down!' over and over again.

After she left, I finally got to examine my room thoroughly. It was undersea themed. The walls and floor were made to look like a giant aquarium with actual sea creatures both mythical and normal swimming behind the glass. The ceiling was painted a navy blue with lights scattered across it to look the night sky. It had a really cool effect on the room. My bed was designed to look like a giant clam shell which was a little to _Little Mermaid_-ish for me but it was still pretty neat. It was very… ocean-y the room even smelled a bit like the sea.

I was so exhausted that I kicked off my sneakers and crashed onto the water bed (ironic huh?) and instantly fell asleep.

_

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I was running through a dark passageway, a girl about fourteen was sprinting next to me and a girl who looked a bit older was following us trying to keep up. "Hurry Clio we still have to try to save the others." I said._

"_Are you crazy Apollo?" the girl next to me hissed, "We have to leave, now!" _

"_We can't leave them!" I argued._

"_Lord Apollo!" the girl behind me gasped._

_I whirled around and realized that Clio was gone. "Clio!" I shouted for her._

_The other girl grabbed my arm, "There's no time, we have to leave-"_

_She was cut off by the dark shadow creature that stood before us, "Leaving so soon are we?" the creature wheezed. A chill ran through my spine, the creature's voice was like nails on a chalkboard. The creature reached out and grabbed my arm, a searing pain ran up my body and I let out a scream!_

Suddenly I awoke. My body was plastered with sweat and I could feel myself shaking. The blankets that I had thrown over me were twisted and thrown in every direction off of my bed. I looked at my watch; 2:03 am.

Still breathing heavily I got up and grabbed a fresh tee-shirt and walked into the sand-colored bathroom. I leaned over the sink and splashed some water on my face; I was still shaking. That had been one crazy dream, and I had learned a few things from it, Apollo and the other gods that had gone missing had been kidnapped, and that Kat had a new minion working for her; the shadow creature.

I had to clear my head, throwing on the clean tee-shirt; I walked out of my room and began walking along the empty streets of Olympus. I walked around aimlessly trying to replay the dream in my head to see if I had missed anything. Every time I tried to replay the dream though it kept getting fuzzier and fuzzier until I almost couldn't even remember what the creature looked like.

I walked up some stairs, still oblivious as to where I was going. I stopped and glanced up and saw the full moon reflecting off of a small clear lake. A small, silver gazebo was floating on an island in the center of the lake with a long white boardwalk leading to it. Still in _Percy-land_, I began walking down the boardwalk to the gazebo. Maybe the fresh air would help me calm down.

I leaned over the railing of the gazebo and stared aimlessly at the small forest that surrounded the lake. I let out a soft laugh. "Olympus is bigger than I thought."

"It sure is."

I turned around and saw that Artemis was leaning on the railing of the gazebo as well, but she was looking up at the moon.

I felt my throat go dry; _I'm probably not supposed to be out here._ "Uh… Lady Artemis, uh, hi. Um-"

Artemis looked at me, "What are you doing out here? Just because you are not at camp does not mean you still don't have a curfew." She said nonchalantly.

I felt my face turning red, "Uh, sorry, I umm, I was just-"

"Thinking?" Artemis finished for me. Before I could respond she continued, "Yea, it's funny, a lot of gods and demigods come out here to think but they don't realize that this also happens to be my temple."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

Artemis shrugged, "It's fine." I couldn't help but notice that she seemed a bit distant.

"Are you alright?" I asked out of genuine concern.

Artemis bit her lip, "I think Apollo's in trouble." I didn't say anything so Artemis continued, "Aphrodite has most of the council convinced that he's just off seeing some mortal girl, but the fact that he didn't show up on the Iris-message tells me that he's probably in some sort of trouble. Usually I have some clue as to what he's doing but it's almost as if we've been disconnected, it's driving me insane because I can't help but think that Kronos has something to do with this." She looked at me and I could tell that she didn't have the dream that I had, so I told her about my dream.

Artemis listened closely and when I was done I could tell that I had her even more concerned then before. "So I was right. He is in trouble." She thought for a moment, "Let me go with you."

It took me a moment to try to process what she had said; my brain had gone back on sleep mode. "What?"

"Let me go with you. I can help you. I'm a hunter; I'll have an easier job tracking the missing gods than you would."

"But I thought Zeus forbid the gods from interfering with a human quest." I argued.

Artemis glared at me, "Oh, so you'd rather _not_ have help."

"No, it's just..." She was making it very hard to argue with her.

"Percy, it's my brother. When I went missing he didn't sit back and do nothing, did he?"

I sighed, "No."

"So I can't sit back and do nothing! I have to go with you."

"But what about-"

Artemis crossed her arms over her chest, "Percy, are you really arguing with an all-powerful goddess, in her own temple?"

My face fell, "Fine, you can come." Gods; never try arguing with them, they win every time.

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Heyy, hope you liked! Well idk when I'll update next cuz I'm pretty busy. Oh yea and thanks to all my amazing reviewers! You guys rock!

~ArtemisFrimm


	4. Dear Maria, Count Me In

Heyy wassup? Heyy sorry about not updating in like... forever but I was on vacation for the past few weeks and I was planning on updating a few days ago but I found out that while I was on vaca my mom accidently mistook my notes for this story as trash and threw it away so I was at a just right as you go with it sort of stage. Did you know how much research it takes to come up with just one chapter... lemmme tell you... a lot. It may not seem like much research but I had to google local cafes in NYC, I had to google Pandora, I had to google Thanatos and death and good gravy so much research... but if it means making the story that much more awesome then it's worth it. **Big disclamer this time: I don't own... Percy JAckson and the Olympians, The Atlas Cafe, or Google. **Thanks! Hope you enjoy... I love feedback btw =)

~ArtemisFrimm

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The next morning, I awoke to a knock on my door. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and tried to smooth out my shirt before I opened the door. I opened the door and was greeted by Annabeth.

"Hey seaweed brain, planning on sleeping the day away?"

I looked over at the fish clock and realized that it was already 11:45. Oops. "Sorry, I didn't sleep well last night."

Annabeth shrugged. "Well hurry up and get dressed so we can get going."

I nodded and once she left I got dressed into fresh shirt and jeans.

I met up with her again outside of the Empire State Building, and I told her about the Council Meeting, and my encounter with Artemis.

"Wait, so Artemis is joining us on the quest?" Annabeth asked.

"Yea I guess. She told me to meet her at the Atlas Café."

Annabeth nodded, "That's not too far of a walk I suppose. I wonder if Thalia will be coming."

I shrugged and began wishing that Grover was here, a quest with all girls didn't exactly sound like a walk in the park.

After about thirty minutes, we finally reached the Atlas Café. Now, I'm going to be quite honest and say that I was a little bit nervous going in there; I had met Atlas and he wasn't exactly a nice guy to hang around, so going to a café named after him wasn't exactly a walk in the park for me.

We walked in and to my relief; it was just a normal looking café. I looked around and surprisingly didn't see Artemis anywhere.

"Didn't you say Artemis would meet us here?" Annabeth asked me.

I thought for a moment then remembered something that Artemis had said the night before.

I walked up to the counter where a middle-aged guy was reading a magazine. When he realized that I was standing there he didn't glance up, "Can I help you?"

"Uh, I was told to ask for Pandora."

The guy looked up at me with a suspicious look on his face, "You got a reservation?"

I glanced at Annabeth who looked almost as confused as I was, "Uh no sir, we're meeting someone."

"Whatever," he let us through behind the counter, "Go through the door behind the coffee maker, and make sure no one's watching."

I glanced at Annabeth again and we made our way through the door. I was expecting some sort of storage closet to be behind the door but no; behind the door, was another café with dim lights and a mysterious atmosphere. It smelled of coffee and pastries but looked like a sort of club. Kids were sitting in large beanbag chairs and drinking coffee or looking at their laptops. A large graffiti sign hung over the entry way. I could tell it was in Ancient Greek because I could actually read what the sign said; The Twelve Evils Café.

A woman with strawberry pink hair who looked in her late 20's came and greeted us at the hostess stand. Her nametag read; Pandora.

"Hi, welcome to the Twelve Evils Café, safe haven for demigods and gods since 12 A.D. My name is Pandora, and may I ask; do y'all have a reservation?" She had a southern accent and a look of arrogance on her face.

"Uh, no ma'am, we're meeting someone here. I'm Percy Jackson."

A smile slid across her face and she reached out and put a hand on my shoulder, "Why hello there Percy Jackson. Ya know I've heard an awful lot of news about you. I heard that you defeated Kronos. That's very impressive. You didn't by any chance see my ex did you?"

I glanced at Annabeth for help but she looked like she was thinking of plans to get rid of Pandora.

"Who?" I asked.

"My ex B-F Prometheus?"

"Oh yea we saw him." I said.

"Did you kick his ass?"

"Uh, well…"

"Oh forget it, so Percy you know, usually I don't allow demigods without reservations in here, but ya know, since you're… well 'you', I'll make an exception this once, but your blonde friend will have to stay out here." Pandora smiled.

"Actually Annabeth's with me, and we're meeting someone here." I said; beginning to feel a little annoyed with Pandora.

Pandora pursed her lips, obviously annoyed that I didn't want to ditch Annabeth. "Well, Percy, a lot of people 'meet' here. And there are so many different types of meetings, it would be impossible to find the meeting y'all are looking for. I mean, we have monster hunting meetings, council meetings, friendly meetings, and even the occasional make-out meeting, which is highly frowned upon by the way."

"We're here meeting Artemis." I said slowly.

Pandora backed away from me quickly as if I had some contagious disease. "Percy, why would you be here having a make-out session with Artemis? She is the virgin goddess you know."

"Oh my gods, I'm not here for a make-out session with Artemis!" Gods this lady was getting on my last nerves.

Pandora looked relieved, "Well, that's good because it would be a little awkward with her goth-chic hunter girl here."

"Thalia's here?" Annabeth asked looking excited.

Pandora looked over at Annabeth as if eying a disgusting insect, "Excuse me but was I talking to you? No, I wasn't. I was talking, don't interrupt; rude!"

I sighed. "Is Thalia here?"

Pandora rolled her eyes, "The goth-hunter chic. Yea she and Miss Don't-Bother-Me are over at table three." She pointed to a small table in the corner.

"Thanks." I said as we walked over to the table, and as we left I heard Pandora muttering something that sounded kind of like: _Snupid Munter Fitch._

We walked over to the table that Artemis and Thalia sat at. Artemis was skimming over an Olympus magazine with moving pictures kind of like in _Harry Potter, _under the headline article was a 'have you seen these immortals?' ad. Thalia was listening to her iPod. When Thalia saw us, she hopped out of her seat and gave Annabeth a big hug. Artemis just glanced up from her magazine, "You're late." She said irritably.

Annabeth and I sat across from them, "Sorry." I couldn't help but notice that Artemis had circles under her eyes. Obviously she hadn't gotten much sleep after our meeting last night.

The tension around our table was almost so thick that you could cut it with a knife and serve it on a Pandora Plate, luckily, Thalia broke it, "So Percy, you had a dream about some of the missing gods? What exactly happened in your dream?"

I told them about my dream… again. Once I was done everyone was quiet with thought. Artemis was the first to break the silence, "Well, at least we know where we have to start looking."

"We do?" I asked trying to think of what she meant.

Artemis nodded. "Yes. The minor gods and my brother are being held in the Labyrinth."

I glanced at Annabeth and could tell that she was thinking the same thing that I was. "The Labyrinth was destroyed."

Artemis shook her head, "No, most of the Labyrinth was destroyed." She reached into her bag and pulled out a map of the Underworld, "A small section of tunnels ran through the Underworld so they weren't destroyed. It runs through Tartarus which also makes sense because if the minor gods are being held in the Labyrinth tunnels then they would be close to Kronos enabling him to keep a close eye on them and on Katrina's progress."

"Wouldn't Hades know if his wife and the other gods were being held in the Underworld?" Annabeth asked after a moment.

Artemis shook her head, "Tartarus is very far down beneath the Underworld. It is hidden in the deepest, darkest, scariest corner of hell. That is why when Kronos was rising last time, Hades couldn't –" She faltered and looked around suddenly.

Thalia eyes widened in alarm, "What is it?"

"Don't you feel that?" Artemis asked warily.

"Feel what?" I asked wondering what the heck she was talking about.

"Someone is watching us." She said.

Thalia looked around as did Annabeth and I, "No one's watching us." Thalia said finally.

Artemis opened her mouth as if to say something but changed her mind.

"Well… changing subjects, what was the shadow thing in my dream?" I asked.

"Death." Artemis answered simply though she still seemed bothered by the strange feeling she had.

"You mean Thanatos?" Annabeth asked.

Artemis shook her head, "No, this 'Grim Reaper'-like creature is far older than Thanatos; older than most of the gods are actually. Thanatos is not 'evil' in a sense he just represents death or the circle of life if you will. Where as Death, the creature we are dealing with is all of the evils associated with death and torment. He represents and practically is all of the eviler aspects of death such as murder, suicide, poison, etcetera." She whipped her head around again and looked around the café again. She let out an annoyed sigh, "Hermes I know you're here."

"Damn." Someone muttered from behind a large plastic, blue fern.

Hermes stepped out from behind the artificial plant and walked over to our table. He looked a little different, he looked in his late teens or early twenties and instead of salt and pepper hair, his hair was now a dark brown.

"Hermes what in Hades are you doing here?" Artemis asked irritably.

Hermes sat down next to Annabeth and me. "Excellent question, but an even better question would be 'What are you doing here?'"

"That is none of your business Hermes, now leave." Artemis answered sternly.

Hermes arched his eyebrows in mock offense, "Well fine Artemis, if I'm not welcome here than I guess I'll just leave. I've got a lot of messages to deliver. One of the messages I have to deliver is to Zeus actually, someone just wanted me to tell him that a certain goddess is planning on joining Percy on his quest and just so happened to have lied to him about going hunting in Alaska." Hermes smiled at Artemis and Thalia who looked stunned then he turned to me and winked, "Good luck on your quest Percy."

He turned to leave but Artemis stopped him, "Wait, Hermes!"

He turned around and smiled at her, "hmm?"

Artemis scowled at him, "What do you want?"

Hermes smiled and pulled up a chair at our table, "Well, now that you mention it, I'd really love to join you on your quest."

Artemis narrowed her eyes at him, "Why?"

Hermes shrugged, "Multiple reasons; my mother and one of my… erg, closer Olympian friends has gone missing and I kind of want to help get them back, also, Demeter and Hera have been driving me insane with the constant messages they have been sending to each other about their missing daughters. Plus, I know every single passageway in the Underworld from having to escort the dead there for over a thousand years. I could be a very useful asset."

Artemis glared at him, "Any other reasons?" she asked coldly.

Hermes shrugged, "Well you know, like I said earlier, if you don't want me to come then I could always tell the old man what you're up to and he could stop you from going too."

Artemis glanced over at Thalia who looked annoyed. Frankly, I was actually hoping that Artemis would refuse to let him go. Two gods with us on a quest would probably be pretty dangerous. If Hermes told Zeus, than maybe just Annabeth and I could go and we wouldn't have to worry about being blown up.

Artemis let out a long sigh, "Fine, you can come." She muttered.

Crap.

* * *

Well, that's it for the time being, I'll try updating whenever so yea... I hope you enjoyed... tell me what'cha think!

~ArtemisFrimm

BTW while I was on vaca I got to try some boiled crawfish and lemme tell u, if you ever get the oppertunity to try them I'd reccomend doing so... they are amazing. Yea thanks!


	5. Shut Your Eyes

**Yo, whats crackelackin? Yes I know, I know, I suck when it comes to updating regularly, but in my defense, I had zero ideas as to what to write for this chapter so yea... Lame excuse I know, but what can you do... Uh yea, nuttin much else to say other than, GO WHITESOX! Uh yea, on with the story...**

**~ArtemisFrimm  
**

* * *

We decided that in order to avoid any unwanted attention from Zeus or any of the other gods; we would have to take a train to California. I know what you all are probably thinking, _Wow, that would be one long train ride, especially with two gods with you. _Yes, it would be a very long train ride; almost a three day journey. Yea, I'm not really looking forward to it.

So now, we were all making our way down to Grand Central Station. Annabeth and Thalia were catching up on things that had happened since the war against Kronos and Hermes was talking my ear off. He was telling me about some crazy theft he did as a kid in Greece when Artemis lost it, "Hermes would you shut the hell up? No one wants to hear your voice right now!"

Hermes frowned looking genuinely offended, "Yeash Ar, don't get so snippy. I know you're freaking out with your brother being missing, but that's no excuse for being mean." Hermes crossed his arms over his chest like a pouting seven-year-old. On most occasions I would have started laughing at the god's ridiculous pout but considering Artemis looked ready to explode, I figured laughing probably wouldn't be the smartest thing to do. Artemis rolled her eyes, "I don't know why we let you come." She muttered.

Hermes grinned, "I'm very persuasive."

* * *

We finally arrived at Grand Central Station after about 15 minutes of walking.

"I'll go buy us the tickets," Hermes said, "I mean, you know, since I'm the only one here who can pass as an adult." He smirked at Artemis who chose to ignore it.

"As long as you promise to _buy _the tickets and not steal them." Artemis quipped.

Hermes shook his head, "You take the fun out of everything. You should be known as the party-pooper goddess." He muttered as he walked toward the ticket counter.

Annabeth and I were laughing silently and even Thalia was having trouble keeping a straight face.

Artemis shook her head and muttered something about Hermes and immature. Smiling, I took in the sight of Grand Central Station. I had only been here once before when I was really little and honestly I couldn't remember what I had found about Grand Central Station that was so amazing. It was an older building with a lot of people rushing to get to their trains.

Suddenly something caught my attention, I saw a custodian walk by one of the 'Staff Personnel Only' door, and when he moved away, there was a young guy leaning on the door. He had a large hat covering his head and wore a long jacket.

He looked really out of place within the hustle and bustle of Grand Central Station, and quite honestly, he made me feel uneasy. He must have felt my eyes on him because he looked straight at me with sea-green eyes. He lifted up his hat, revealing jet-black hair and nodded at me. A wicked grin spread across his face and he waved me over.

The strangest thing about the guy was that he looked exactly like me… And naturally I followed him.

* * *

~Artemis~

Artemis was tapping her foot in irritation. She hadn't told anyone, but she had had a nightmare the previous night just before she ran into Percy. It was almost an exact match to the one Percy had described which didn't reassure her at all.

She suddenly realized that Thalia was talking to her. "Lady Artemis?"

Artemis fell out of her trance, "Yes?"

"You haven't seen Percy have you? Lord Hermes has returned with the tickets and apparently our train leaves in an hour and we can't find Percy anywhere."

Artemis thought for a moment. Her silver eyes scanned the overly-crowded station in search for the son of Poseidon but he couldn't be found. She turned to find Hermes watching her.

"You haven't turned him into a jack-a-lope have you?" Hermes joked.

Artemis only scowled at him, and concentrated on finding him mentally. She had her mind search through the crowds of people brushing through their thoughts in search of Percy's mind.

She reached one mind in particular that seemed to have a very strong guard around it. Curiosity engulfed Artemis due to the strangely protected mind. She pried harder, no longer brushing the mind but trying to force her way in. She expected the mind to be hard, almost impossible to break through, and she was extremely surprised to find that past the outer shell, it was very easy to penetrate, and that deeply worried her.

Before she could withdraw her mind, sudden sharp visions flashed in her mind; _she was a young girl, she watched as her mother fell to the ground after the fatal snakebite, tears were falling from her eyes. She was on the beach on the fateful day, Orion, her only lover, lay dead and bleeding on the beach, her arrow through his heart, she was screaming. Zoë, dying after her father's final blow._

Suddenly whatever had her mind released her with such a force that she fell, her legs had given out on her. She let out a scream as the images from her past seemed seared into her mind.

Thalia and Hermes had caught the goddess before she had hit the ground.

"Lady Artemis!" Thalia yelped in surprise as tears had begun to form, and fall from the goddess's eyes.

"Ar? Artemis, what happened?" Hermes asked his voiced laced with alarm as well.

Artemis opened her eyes as she tried to rid her mind from the terrifying images from her past. She was shocked to find herself supported by Hermes and Thalia; tears were still sliding down the goddess's cheek.

She could feel herself shaking as she stood up and wiped what remained of the tears from her face. She felt sick to her stomach, never had she felt this way before.

Hermes, Annabeth, Thalia, and a few mortals passing by were watching her with concern. "Artemis, what happened?" Hermes asked gently.

As calmly as she could, Artemis told them about the strange mind. She told them everything except what images the mind had shown her. She avoided looking at Hermes for she knew that he had to know what images the strange mind had shown her. She was afraid that if she looked him in the eyes she would breakdown in front of him, and her lieutenant and the daughter of Athena.

Hermes thankfully, didn't pry about the strange daydreams but instead asked, "Where did the mind come from?"

Artemis closed her eyes and searched for the mind once more, making sure to keep away from its surface. When she opened her eyes, she knew which direction the mind had come from.

"It came from over there." She said pointing to a 'Staff Personnel Only' door.

Hermes shrugged, "Well, at least now we know where our search for Percy begins."

_Great.

* * *

_**OOkay so what'dya think? Love it? Hate it? Comments, CC, or just wanna say hi? Reviews are very much loved :) Hmmm... nuttin much else to say, I'm at a lack of words so yea... GO SOX! BEAT THE TWINS! (No offense twins fans =)**

**~ArtemisFrimm  
**


	6. Dead!

**Wooey woo hoo! Another update... I'm on a roll aren't I =) I would have more but I'm really tired and picture day's tomorrow, so gots to get me my beauty sleep lol. Yea, I just wanted to thank my dad for the starbursts today. They made my day and helped me right this chapter. =) yay starbursts! I also wanted to say that if the Whitesox don't win tonight I'll be very angry :^[ yea so on with the story and as always, reviews are appreciated! =)**

**~ArtemisFrimm  
**

* * *

I followed the clone of myself as best as I could through the dark passageways. Obviously this was far more that a 'Staff Personnel Only' room. The corridors were dark and damp and I had a very hard time keeping up with the stranger's long strides, and before I knew it, I came to a fork in the dark maze. I had no idea as to which way the person had come from.

I breathed in the damp air, and tried to think of what I should do. Following Percy 2.0 probably wasn't the smartest decision to make. I don't know why I had the urge to follow him. What was I doing? I should be waiting for a train with the others. I was on a quest for the gods' sake! I shouldn't be following something that could be possibly dangerous. _I have to get out of here._

I turned around, preparing to make my way out of this dismal maze. Unfortunately that would be harder than I expected. Apparently, I had been so focused on following the strange clone of myself that I hadn't realized that he had led me through multiple forks and turns and gods know what else.

I breathed out a puff of air; the air around me was so cold that I could actually see my breath. Suddenly, I felt a strong tug at my mind. It felt kind of like it had when I saw the Percy 2.0, but right now, following the tug would probably be easier than finding my way back through the maze.

I followed the tug down the passageway to the left. I followed it past several turns and dips and through multiple forks. Curiosity overcame me and I ventured a glimpse in the other passageways. They would give anyone, with just about any phobia a heart-attack.

Down one passage-way, I could have sworn I saw a very large rattle-snake tail, slither down towards another corridor, down another passage way, the largest spider web I had ever seen spread across the way, it was probably big enough to catch a full-grown minotaur in it. Annabeth would have died if she were here. Down a third corridor, laid a body. It was mangled and broken; blood ran across the length of it. I stopped in alarm and suddenly, a sense of horror arose in me when I saw blonde curls soaked in the blood.

_Annabeth. _I breathed in total terror as I ran towards the mangled form of my best friend.

"Annabeth! Annabeth, please wake up! Annabeth!" I cried as I tried shaking her awake, though I knew it was no use.

How could this have happened to her?

Who had done this?

Before I could ponder these questions any longer, Annabeth's body melted away into nothing. There was no trace of her body at all. No blood, not even a small strand of hair remained behind. It was as if she had never been there at all.

Suddenly I heard a voice speak to me in my mind. It sounded a lot like my voice, except I knew that it wasn't me speaking. _"That was an illusion Perseus. You friend is fine. You must not lose focus, follow me. Forget what you just saw." _As persuasive as the voice sounded in my mind, I couldn't forget what I had just seen. What if that had really been Annabeth.

"How do I know that you aren't lying to me?" I called out into the dank silence.

The voice in my head laughed and I felt chills run through my body, _"You want proof Perseus?" _I heard a loud crack and suddenly Artemis's small lithe body lay in front of me. She, like Annabeth had been, was surrounded by a thick blood. It was red, which I thought (between horrifying, incomprehensible thoughts) was odd. Her head was at an awkward angle and her silver eyes were open in an empty terror.

"What have you done?" I managed to say, even though I felt as though I could throw up. Seeing Annabeth dead has heart-braking, but seeing Artemis's mangled body, made me feel something much deeper, it made it seem as if the gods were weak. They were no more than human. It was frightening in a surreal sort of way.

I hear the voice laugh once again, _"You wanted proof young Perseus." _The voice suddenly became much gentler, _"Both the goddess and your young friend are fine. Now come along and no more delays."_ Just as Annabeth's body had, Artemis's body melted until there was nothing left.

Still shaking, and feeling sick to my stomach, I followed the voice away from the corridor of death.

The voice hadn't said anything in a while, yet I could still feel its tug on my mind as it told me where to go. It was a weird feeling. Like being on a leash. I wasn't used to the feeling, and quite honestly, I didn't like it.

I followed the tug for a while longer until finally it released me. I walked a little farther down the passageway the voice had led me to, and in the center of a circular multitude of passageways, say Kat. She was reading a book that I honestly felt was a bit large for her age, but she acted as if she was home, she didn't seem worried about anything.

"Kat?"

She looked up from her book, just now noticing me for the first time. "Oh, hello Percy. You know, it took you way to long to come visit me again. I don't know if you know this now, but I'm practically more powerful that a god." She smiled at me, a white smile that honestly kind of reminded me of Apollo's blinding smile.

"Yea, I've heard." I said bluntly.

Katrina frowned, "Well, you must think you're so smart then don't you?" she snarled bitterly, "I bet you know just what powers I've been blessed with then? And how I became this way? That Annabeth bitch probably told you everything huh? Or that stupid stuck-up goddess Artemis, I bet she kept you really informed. I still despise the fact that I have her gods-damned blood in my veins."

My eyes widened in alarm, quite honestly, I think it's bad enough when a teenager or adult talks like that, but when an eleven year old talks like that, it's just wrong. "Watch the language." I said blandly.

Katrina glared at me. Her emerald-green eyes were replaced with flames, kind of like Ares eyes. "Shut up Percy! I'm going to talk and for once, you're going to forget about you big, fat ego and you are going to listen to me!"

_Big, fat ego? _I decided I probably shouldn't anger her anymore so I sighed, and sat down, "Okay Kat, shoot. Tell me your big story."

Katrina let out a long sigh, obviously trying to control her temper, "Well, like every wonderful story, we should start at the beginning. See, when I was a small, adorable, **mortal**, baby, my stupid mortal parents decided that they didn't want me. So what did they do you may ask? Well, instead of giving me away to some wonderfully nice family, who would care for me, they placed me in a cardboard box and left me in an alley-way in New York City… on Christmas! But you know what, I was lucky, before I froze to death thanks to my bastard parents, some older demigod found me. He brought me to Kronos. Kronos treated me as his child. He loved me. The demigod who found me was Kronos's first attempt to rise to power. But the stupid coward chickened out at the last minute and Kronos had him killed in one of the worst possible ways.

"Kronos decided to wait a while, and began possessing the bodies of mortals to train me and teach me about the unfairness of the gods. Unfortunately the mortals never lasted very long with a being such as Kronos in them, and they died after one use. But Kronos persisted. He taught me everything and more than that stupid camp ever could. He loved me while my mom and dad couldn't. But then that stupid-head Luke came around and Kronos forgot about me.

"He spent all of his time training and preparing Luke for his uprising. When you killed Luke, I couldn't be happier. Kronos was mad, but he had me now. I told him my ideas of how to rise to power. He liked them. One plan that really intrigued him was the plan to steal the blood of the gods, to make me invincible.

"You see Percy, what happens when you inject yourself with the blood of the gods, is that it starts to replace your blood with immortal blood. It gives you the traits that that god or goddess possess. Basically, you become a generated demigod. Of course, with so little blood, you'd become a very weak demigod at the most, but I suggested using the blood of all of the gods. See, with all of the blood of the gods, I would inch my way towards immortality, and with each pint of blood, I became more god-like in my powers too." She grinned, "I now have the archery skills better than Artemis, healing powers more great than Apollo, brains, much more complex that Athena, beauty more awe-striking than Aphrodite, fighting abilities far more powerful that Ares, and so on. And now, I'm strong enough to take down the gods! Luring them here is the easiest part, and Percy, you're actually helping me. Allowing Artemis and Hermes to come with, you're practically eating out of my hands! Once the gods are out of the way, we'll steal more of their blood and help Kronos to rise, while we send the gods down to Tartarus like they belong!"

I laughed, her plan was crazy. Insane. It could never work! Could it?

Katrina's face melted into red-hot rage. Her eyes glowed like hot coals again, honestly, it was pretty disturbing. "Why are you laughing? Do you doubt me Perseus?"

I shook my head, "Kat, calm down, Kronos is using you. He'll dispose of you once he rises. He'll be worried because you'll be to powerful. Kat, he's been lying to you, manipulating you." I said honestly.

Katrina actually had tears of fury running down her face now, "That's a lie! Kronos loves me! He told me I was better than any of the children he's ever had! I hate you Perseus! I hate you, and all of your stupid camp friends, and all of those cursed gods! Rot in Tartarus!" she screamed.

I shook my head, I had to calm her down, "Kat, listen, there is no way you'll be able to capture all of the gods. Just Artemis and Hermes could probably tear you to shreds."

Kat shook her head. She was beginning to calm down. "I could beat both of them with my eyes closed."

Before I could respond, something grabbed me by the back of my neck, it felt as if someone was stabbing me with daggers and burning me from the inside out, my brain felt like it was boiling and melting and suddenly violent images flashed through my mind: _Zoë was dying at Mount Tam, Silena dying as the drakon melted her face, Michael Yew dying when the bridge collapsed, Luke dying after he sacrificed himself to stop Kronos, Annabeth's mangled body in the dank corridor, Artemis's broken body, sightless eyes in a silent scream. _

Suddenly whatever had me, released me, but I felt too weak to stand. My legs felt like jell-o and my brain and skin was burning, I could hear someone screaming, and as an after thought, I realized that it was my scream.

Suddenly a sharp twinge reached my nose; I could barely feel it through the pain that was already coursing through my body. I looked up and saw the Katrina had launched a hard kick to my nose. Reaching up, I felt blood, it was probably broken.

Katrina smiled at me, "Percy, meet Death. Death, Percy." I looked up at the grim-reaper looking creature from my dreams. He had a raspy breathing that sounded as if his lungs were rattling around in his chest. I couldn't see any eyes, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to.

Death spoke in my mind, though by the look on Kat's face, I could tell that she could hear him too. _"Hello Perseus Jackson, legendary son-of-Poseidon. Ask me anything you wish. I know you have questions for me."_

I tried to calm my breathing, but I felt as though I would throw up if I tried to speak so I said nothing.

"_I have been formed through the horrors of everyone's past. Kronos created me, I am everyone's nightmare, both immortal and mortal. All will fear me, including you young Jackson." _And with that, he back handed me with his large skeletal hands. I blacked out…

* * *

Artemis was still shaking when they entered through the 'Staff Personnel Only' door. She tried not to show it though. She tired to ignore the horrifying images that were still burned into her mind. She ignored the fact that she had collapsed and had started crying in front of the daughter-of-Athena, her lieutenant, and her fellow immortal.

She had to keep a strong composure though. She could still feel Hermes' eyes on her, watching to see if she was okay. She was used to getting that same look from Apollo. It annoyed her enough when Apollo did it, and it drove her crazy when Hermes looked at her like this. She could tell that Thalia and Annabeth were still shaken from the way she had reacted to the visions.

Inside the tunnels it was very dark and very cold. It felt as though she was stuck inside a large Olympus Air refrigerator. Artemis felt an involuntary shiver run its way up her back. She felt Hermes eyes burn into her again.

"I'm fine." She muttered to him.

He nodded, "Do you have any idea as to which way the mind that you felt came from?" he asked her carefully.

Artemis took a shaky breath (she blamed it on the cold air). She let her mind wander around the dark tunnels in search of the evil mind that had showed her the tragic images from her past.

She reached a certain spot in the tunnel when she felt another sharp mind, probably the one from earlier, lash out and attack her. Horrifying images flashed in her mind once again and she recoiled away from the attack. Artemis let out a gasp as she escaped from the evil mind's clutches.

"Lady Artemis?" Thalia's voice was alarmed and Artemis realized that she as gripping her arm rather tightly.

"Sorry Thalia." Artemis murmured as she removed her arm. Avoiding Hermes worried stare, she pointed down one of the tunnels. "It came from that direction."

The small party of gods and demigods walked along the dark tunnels. Annabeth and Thalia were talking quietly once again, the two friends obviously happy to be able to spend time with each other.

Artemis smiled faintly but it melted from her face when Hermes walked in step next to her. "You alright?" he asked in a brotherly way that reminded her once again of her missing twin.

She nodded a yes even though she was lying. The bad thing about lying in front of Hermes was that he too was a liar, and one can't lie to a liar without being caught by a liar in their own lie.

"You're lying." He murmured.

Artemis glared at him, but obviously wasn't very convincing. Hermes placed a hand on her shoulder, "We'll find your brother and make whoever captured him and the other minor gods pay. I promise." He said reassuringly.

Artemis glared at him again, "I'm fine, I-"

"Lady Artemis!"

* * *

**Duh duh duh! What's going to happen next? (Honestly I'm not really sure yet, sort of typing by ear ya know =) well that's it for this relatively longish chapter so I hope you all enjoyed. comments? questions? concerns? or just wanna say hi? leave a review and tell me what'cha think. Thanks!**

**~ArtemisFrimm  
**


	7. In to Deep

**Hi! Kk so this is my third update this week, so idk when the next one'll be but hopefully soon. **

**I loooooovvvve pineapple! Speaking of Pineapple, the Psych Summer finally is one tonight on USA. Speaking of summer speaking of pineapple, I really wish it was still summer and i wasn't in school. Speaking of school speaking of summer speaking of pineapple I really am not happy with my english class. The girls in my class are so rude. We were giving speeches today and these three stuck up snobs were talking during everyone's speeches and making fun of everyone and then this one girl pulls out her ipod and starts listening to it in class. I glared at her and she gave me this look like 'WTH is wrong with you. eff off.' Grr they irk me so stinkin much! }:[ but yea... hope you enjoy! Oh btw way, whitesox u had better start winning again!**

**~ArtemisFrimm  
**

* * *

Artemis raced forward to see Thalia being surrounded by multiple skeletal/zombie looking creatures. She fought them off as best as she could, but as soon as they were destroyed, they quickly reassembled themselves and were back on top of the daughter-of-Zeus in a heartbeat, or in this case, no heart-beat.

She trusted that her lieutenant could handle them, for the meantime at least. Looking around, she saw Percy, unconscious and tied up. She raced over to him and cut his bonds and then left to go help her lieutenant, but before she could help her, she felt an intense pain race its way up through her body. She let out an agonizing scream as vivid memories flashed through her mind for the third time again that day.

"_Artemis! Apollo!" her mother screamed one last time before the snake, sent by Hera, killed her with the fatal bite in the leg. Artemis rushed to her mother's side with Apollo right behind her. Artemis killed off the snake while Apollo tried to cure their mother. It was too late, and the two young gods wept in each other's arms._

_Apollo was watching her with mild satisfaction as she took aim at the dark shape in the water. Afterward, she had searched the beaches for Orion, and found him surrounded by a small crowd of people. He was bleeding with a silver arrow through his heart. Apollo cleared away the people as Artemis screamed in despair._

_Her poor lieutenant lay dying because of Artemis's foolishness. "Have I served thee well my lady?"_

Horrifying images and memories continued to play through her mind, all of which was her fault in some way. She let out another scream as whatever had grabbed her, both physically and mentally released her.

She looked up at the face of what had attacked her, and she felt her immortal blood drain from her face. Death. The one thing that she had ever seen truly scared her brother, and she now knew why.

"_You scream much more easily than your brother does. Although I do see similarities between the two of you. Both of you are guilty in so many ways. You both have caused so much death. I feed off sorrows, and deaths." _Death breathed in a rattling breath, _"That was just a fraction of the pain I can cause." _He let out a chilling laugh, one that sounded similar to a scream, and nails-on-a-chalkboard.

Artemis shivered uncontrollably. She lost all sense of where Hermes, Thalia, and Annabeth were. She prayed that they were okay.

Death reached a cloaked arm, his skeletal hand reaching towards her face. Artemis tried to back away, but she found that she couldn't move; she was trapped between Death and the wall of the tunnels.

Death swiped his hand across her forehead gently but for Artemis it was the most physical pain she had ever experienced. Her bones felt like they were snapping into pieces, her stomach felt like it was boiling and her brain was drowning, and her skin was melting from the worst possible acid you could imagine. She was in so much pain that she couldn't think straight. She was crying and writhing in pain, at one point, she recalled that she had actually prayed the Hades to strip her of her immortality so she could escape from the pain. She felt herself losing consciousness as the pain overtook her.

* * *

~Percy~

I regained consciousness when I heard Annabeth's scream. It felt like a jolt of electricity had zapped me awake. Looking around I saw Thalia fighting off some skeletal zombies while Hermes and Annabeth were fighting against Kat, and by the looks of it, Kat hadn't been lying, she was beating them without even breaking a sweat.

I looked around in search of Death. I knew that he couldn't be far away, and it wasn't until I felt the all too familiar chill run through my spine. I looked around and saw him hovering over Artemis, she was crying and bleeding and looked ready to pass out.

"Hermes!" I shouted. Hermes glanced over his shoulder and nodded, obviously knowing what was wrong. I pulled out Riptide and took his place fighting beside Annabeth, while he went to go help Artemis.

"Percy! I! Am! Going! To! Kill! You!" Kat screamed as she fought with the strength of a thousand Ares.

Annabeth and I fought Kat off as much as we could, but she was tough. She was lashing out at us with such ferocity that it was almost frightening, and it didn't help that she was wielding two swords and could fight with them almost independently. She slashed at me while she feinted at Annabeth, and to make things worse, she kept us guessing the entire time. She mixed up all of the moves she did and just when you could start to get her pattern, she would change her fighting techniques all together.

From somewhere behind me I heard Hermes shout my name, "Percy, c'mon, leave her, we have to leave. Now!"

I nodded and glanced at Annabeth and I could tell we both had the same idea, "One…" I counted

"Two…"

"Three!" We pushed Kat as hard as we could; temporarily knocking her off balance and we both retreated back to Hermes. He was carrying Artemis's unconscious body, in one arm, and a sword in the other.

"Hold onto me." He commanded.

Annabeth and I grabbed his sleeve and in a bright flash we were out of the tunnels and in some dark forest in the middle of nowhere. My legs wobbled and gave out on me from fatigue and from the journey.

I wasn't the only one who collapsed though; Annabeth was also on the ground, looking as if she could fall asleep then and there, Artemis's eyes had opened but she still looked terrified and pretty weak, Hermes was next to her, looking as though he hadn't slept in over a year, and Thalia was…

I felt as though I had been jolted for the second time that day, "Where's Thalia?"

Artemis's eyes shot open and she looked around, "Hermes, where is she?" she asked quietly.

Hermes shut his eyes for a moment, thinking, "I don't remember, she was fighting some skeletons but then I saw the Grim Creeper coming towards you and I didn't see her after that." He looked at Artemis; his eyes were pained at her worried expression, "Sorry Ar."

Annabeth had silent tears streaming down her face and Artemis looked ready to both cry and rip someone's head off at the same time. I sighed, "I guess our best bet would be to wait and hope she's in the Labyrinth. They're probably going to try to use her as bait just like the other gods."

Artemis didn't really like my response, "This is your entire fault you stupid son-of-Poseidon!" she snapped, "If you hadn't been so stupid as to follow Death into those gods-forbidden tunnels, Thalia would still be here with us and we'd be safely on our way to California!"

"Artemis chill!" Hermes said, trying to calm the goddess down.

"Stay out of this Hermes!"

I had hit my boiling point after 'stupid son-of-Poseidon'. "You were the one who wanted to come! You think you're so great just because you're a goddess, Kat was right; you are stuck-up, and weak. I saw the way you squirmed when Death was attacking you. I heard you pleading for him to stop!"

"Percy," Annabeth said sternly, trying to shut me up, but I ignored her.

Artemis's face flushed with embarrassment and fury when I mentioned Death but she didn't back down, "If we hadn't come with you, you would still be stuck down in that maze at Katrina's mercy! Then what would happen hmm? My brother would still be in the hands of Death because the person who was assigned to save him got side-tracked and ended up getting himself captured." She screamed, violent tears were sliding down her cheeks but she made no attempt to hide them. After one final glare she stalked off.

Hermes sighed and gave me a look that was hard to read but probably said something like 'way to screw everything up'.

He then clapped his hands together and put on a false grin, trying to make things just slightly less awkward for Annabeth's sake. "Well, why don't I go sneak us some food from the nearest convenient store, Annabeth, you and Percy wanna start collecting some firewood for a fire?" his voice sounded more like a command then a statement so we got to work.

We walked through the woods in silence for a bit, and then Annabeth broke the silence, "Why did you have to freak out like that? You don't need _another_ immortal enemy."

I couldn't believe her, "She freaked out at me! She didn't have to freak out like that. I feel bad enough about what happened, I didn't need her making it worse!"

Annabeth shook her head, "Why did you have to follow it though? Why couldn't you have just waited like the rest of us?"

"I'm sorry, it's hard with-"

"Yea I know, with ADHD. All of us have it Percy, in case you forgot. I'm sorry but you should have a little control over it Percy. Blaming everything on ADHD or dyslexia is total BS. Start taking some responsibility for once seaweed-brain." And with that she left me by myself.

I groaned, today was definitely not my day.

I walked a little farther when I began to hear voices. Creeping forward, I saw that Artemis was talking to an Iris-Message of her father. Zeus looked PO'd big time.

"-were you thinking?" Zeus asked. I had never heard him sound so angry or disappointed.

Artemis was looking him straight in the eye, but I could tell that behind her mask she was much less calm. "I had to do something! What was I supposed to do, just leave him and hope that Percy succeeded?"

"That was exactly what you were supposed to do!" Artemis flinched slightly from his thunderous voice, "It's a human quest Artemis, and you need to start acknowledging the rules! A human quest means that you just leave it be, and not only did you break the laws but you also put Thalia in danger! Now you tell me that she's gone missing? Artemis, I let her join the hunt because you promised me that she'd be safe! Now she's in the hands of very dangerous enemies and you have no idea where she is!" Zeus was furious and I could tell that Artemis was having a hard time keeping her calm composure.

"We think that she's-"

"You 'think' or you know?" he questioned dangerously.

Artemis opened her mouth to speak but Zeus cut her off again, "I knew allowing her to join the hunt was a dangerous idea."

"Father, we'll find her, and Apollo and the other gods. I promise!"

Zeus narrowed his eyes, "Yes you will. You are now part of this quest. Artemis you had better come back with Thalia or not at all. You swore on the River of Styx that you'd keep her safe! You remember our agreement."

Artemis nodded, her eyes avoiding Zeus's.

Zeus nodded once more before waving his head through the mist, disconnecting the IM.

Artemis turned and I could see a few tears streaming down her face and she turned and brushed past me.

Today sucked.

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**I think this chapter had a bit of oocness but that's how i feel it needed to go so I'm sorry if its to bad... anyway, comments, questions, concerns or just wanna say hi? leave a review! They are greatly appreciated and make me feel like a fuzzy pineapple inside :) (in a good way!) Go soX**

**~ArtemisFrimm**


	8. Welcome to Mystery

**Hola mi amigos and amigas! Let's get one thing straight here, I never claimed to be awesome at updating, but I should do better at updating than I was last month, last month I was totally devoted to my Halloween Halfblood fic, soooo now that HAlloween is over, I decided I might as well welcome the new month of November with a chapter update! (YAY!) So yes, hopefully I'll be better at updating this month but don't get to excited I'm going on a few holiday breaks this month so I may have more trouble updating ;) sorry... but until next time, I hope you enjoy :)**

**~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble;)  
**

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I had been walking alone for a few hours now. It was starting to grow darker out, and small late-season snowflakes were falling from the sky. I knew that eventually I would have to get back to camp and face two angry gods and one angry girlfriend (I wasn't really sure who I was more scared of).

After the conversation I had seen between Artemis and Zeus, I understood why Artemis had freaked out so much when Thalia had gone missing. I knew Zeus wasn't the 'friendly fatherly' type, but I really hadn't expected him to freak out like that. I know that Thalia's his daughter, but Artemis was too, and the way he had talked to her was almost… cruel. I had never really considered gods to have feelings like mortals do, but after witnessing Artemis's reaction to the way Zeus had yelled at her, I guess I was wrong.

I remembered Annabeth mentioning something about Artemis spending more time in the mortal world than most gods did, and I wondered if maybe she had picked up on human feelings, or maybe all gods were like that, and they just didn't like to show it. I remembered during the first war against Kronos, when Dionysus had asked me to keep his son Pollux alive, I guess it was a bit of a surprise when the gods showed any other emotion other than stubbornness, but I suppose they did have regular human feelings too.

Suddenly I remembered when I was walking through the maze, seeing Artemis's body and thinking about how it had seemed like a sign, how the gods were no more than human. I didn't know why that had bothered me so much, but it seriously did.

Shivering slightly, I decided that I had procrastinated long enough. It was time for me to get back to the small camp we had set up.

It wasn't until I came nearer to the camp, that I realized how hungry I was. The smell of pizza caused my stomach to let out a loud growl. Suddenly, I heard a _snap_ and all at once I realized that I had an arrow pointed at my heart.

I held up my hands in surrender, "It's me!"

Artemis glared at me from the other side of the bow, she looked reluctant to lower her bow, but eventually did so, and without saying a word to me, she stalked back near the fire and sat down next to Hermes. Annabeth was sitting next to Artemis and she too was avoiding me. Hermes looked both uncomfortable and sympathetic, which honestly didn't make me feel any better.

I sat down across from them. If they were going to give me the silent treatment, I would give it back to them.

Hermes opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it again. He picked up the small, almost empty pizza box and handed me a slice, "Pizza?"

I nodded and took the piece from him, I could tell Annabeth wasn't looking at me, but I could feel Artemis's piercing gaze from across the fire. It was very uncomfortable.

After a while, I lost it, "If you have something to tell me than say it to my face! If not then take a picture, it'll last you longer."

Artemis glared at me, and looked ready to say something when Hermes cut in, "Look, we need to make one thing clear, obviously you both screwed up. Okay? We all know that, but being rude to each other will not help us on this stupid quest. Understand? So you two need to, as the mortals say, 'kiss and build a bridge'!"

Artemis and I stared at him with incredulous expressions, "Uh, Hermes," I said, "I think the term you're looking for is 'kiss and makeup', or build a bridge and get over it'. I've never heard mortals say 'kiss and build a bridge'."

Annabeth bit her lip trying not to laugh, and even Artemis looked slightly less irritable.

Hermes rolled his eyes, "Whatever, my point is, do we have something we want to say to each other?" he asked.

Artemis stared me in the eyes, and I could tell she was still mad, but not as much as she had been earlier, "I'll keep first watch."

And with that, she got up and walked into forest surrounding the make-shift camp.

Hermes frowned slightly, "Well, not exactly the apology I was hoping for, but close enough I suppose." He looked at Annabeth and I, "Well, you heard the goddess; she'll keep first watch, so let's get some shut eye. We'll worry about the quest tomorrow." He winked at us and with a snap of his fingers; I found it very hard for me to keep my eyes open.

_Damn it. I cursed softly as I tried to free my hands from the celestial bonds. I glanced over to my right, lying unconscious on the filthy ground of the cell, was Nike. I didn't know what they had done to her, but she had been like this ever since I woke up. I had no idea where Clio or any of the other immortals were. Honestly, I had no idea as to where I was either, so that didn't help me out a lot. _

_ Suddenly, the door that led into this group of cells creaked open. I heard a lot if swearing, and screaming. Kat had arrived._

_ Kat walked over to my cell, and I glared up at her, it was weird having an nine year old as your captor, but hey, as a god I had gotten into weirder situations. I tore my eyes away from Kat as I felt a cold chill rush through my body._

_ Death. A shiver rippled through my body, and glancing over, I saw that Nike was twitching and whimpering in her sleep. I placed a hand on her shoulder in hopes of calming her down._

_ I froze though, as soon as I noticed that Death was dragging something with it. From the way Death was dragging her, I originally assumed she was dead, it wasn't until she gave a violent jerk and shudder did I realize two things: The girl was alive, and the girl was Thalia._

I woke up sweating and panting, as the image of Thalia's face flashed in my mind. Her eyes had rolled in the back of her head and her face and arms were covered in blood, her face was unhealthily pale, and for a moment, I had assumed she was dead.

Suddenly I felt a strange fluctuation of emotions pulse through my body; fear, pain, and desperation. I tried to figure out why I was feeling these strange emotions, when I realized who the emotions belonged to; Apollo.

It was his dreams I kept visiting, so the feelings must have been his, which meant that Thalia was still alive! She _was_ being held captive with Apollo and the other gods.

I stood up when I realized how cold I was. I ignored the cold. I had to clear my head.

I walked through the empty, frost-covered forest when I realized that I was being followed.

Slowly, I turned around, when from out of no where, a large hellhound lunged at me. I had left Riptide back at the camp, and now only had my arms to defend myself from the tank-sized hellhound.

Before the hellhound claws could come in contact to my skin, the monster exploded into a cloud of ashes. I looked over and saw that Artemis had her bow out.

"Are you alright?" she asked grudgingly.

I nodded and stood up, not realizing that I had fallen over. "What was it doing here?"

"Well, considering we have one powerful son of Poseidon, two gods, and another demi-god, it's not all that surprising that we attracted some monsters. Not only that but monsters love pizza." She added.

I nodded, "Oh." I noticed that she looked very distracted, "Are you alright."

She nodded, "I'm fine. I just have… a bit on my mind right now."

I nodded, and before I could think otherwise of it, I blurted out, "I heard your conversation with Zeus today."

Artemis looked up at me quickly with a wary expression, "How much did you hear?"

I sighed, "All the way from 'What were you thinking?' to Zeus saying something about swearing on the River of Styx and how you're now part of this quest." I answered honestly.

Artemis nodded, her gaze avoiding my own, "I suppose you are probably wondering what he meant by that."

I laughed nervously, "I thought it was pretty straightforward, I mean, you're part of the quest now." I joked nervously.

Artemis looked up at me, her eyes were sad, and obviously not appreciative of my humor, "I meant about me swearing on Styx."

"Oh, well, a little I guess." I said quietly, I had never seen a goddess look so, stressed I guess. I suddenly understood how alone she must have felt. Not only did her brother go missing, but now her lieutenant had gone missing as well, not only that, but Zeus, her own father, was furious at her as well.

"Do you remember the night when I asked Thalia to join my hunt?" Artemis asked.

I nodded. I remembered how upset I had been because I thought she was going to ask Annabeth to join the hunt.

"Well, I had to ask for Lord Zeus's permission for his daughter to join the hunt. When I asked him, I had originally assumed that he would have been pleased to have his youngest daughter as an immortal hunter. But he felt that joining my hunters would be to dangerous," Artemis let out a bitter laugh, "My hunters, it seems, have very bad luck. They end up being killed or raped or… Zeus told me that the only way Thalia could join the hunt is if I swore to him on the River of Styx that I would keep her safe no matter what. Even after that he still did not approve of the idea, as you may remember. I broke the most serious swear a god can make, and now not only is Thalia in trouble, but Zeus is furious at me." She laughed bitterly again, and I couldn't help but notice how she never referred to Zeus as 'father' or 'dad', it was odd, because as a demigod, I generally did the same thing. "Of course it's not the first time."

I had so many questions to ask her, but I figured now wouldn't be the best time to ask them, I also decided not to tell her about my dream just yet, I could see that she was stressed enough without me bombarding her with more information. "We'll find Thalia, and your brother. They'll be fine." I said as reassuringly as I could.

Artemis looked up at me, "Thanks."

I sighed, "Well, I can keep watch for the rest of the night if you'd like."

Artemis nodded, and headed back towards the camp.

Well, one problem solved, but we still had to get to California, and save the other gods, and although I didn't know it at the time, the worst was yet to come…

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**Yes, so I know it's shortish, but I had to get a chapter off of my chest so yea... I desperately hope you liked it and remember reviews are loved like little pieces of Halloween candy ;) Thanks again! Until next time...**

**~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble;)  
**


	9. Wake Up Call

**Ugh, these past two chapters have been unbeliebably short and uninformative... -_- man that is irritating :p well, at least I've been updating right? yea, I know lame... Well, I hope you enjoy anyway... I'll try to update with more info and longer chapters soon. Btw, my fight scene in this may seem a little choppy, but it's hard writing a four person fight scene so yea, sorry... Hope you enjoy ;)**

**~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble ;)  
**

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I began losing track of how long I had been on guard duty. My eyes were beginning to droop, and I felt myself falling closer and closer to sleep. My sight drifted near the fire, as the warmth of it made me groggy.

Annabeth was sleeping with her jacket thrown across her, she looked so much younger asleep; I guess everyone did. Hermes was sprawled out near the fire and was snoring slightly; even asleep he still had a smirk etched across his face. I noticed Artemis laying in a large tree limb that hung over our make-shift camp. I couldn't tell if she was asleep or not, she seemed impossibly still and quiet; I guess even asleep, her hunter/survival skills still kicked in.

Seeing everything so peaceful, I figured closing my eyes for a moment wouldn't be too bad…

_SNAP!_

My eyes opened instantly, I didn't realize how long I had been asleep for, but I knew that it was too long.

I strained my ears, desperate to hear whatever had made the noise. Just as I began assuming it was just a small animal that had made the noise, I heard the _SNAP _of a twig being stepped on, followed by a sobbing sound.

_Well that's odd…_ I thought to myself.

I pulled out Riptide and followed the sound of the crying. I reached a spot in the woods near a small river when I noticed, crying over a large rock, was a woman.

She looked in her thirties and was wearing what I assumed was some sort of tunic. Her long brown hair was tangled and she was sobbing, and had apparently not noticed me.

"Uh, ma'am are you alright?" I asked still not lowering Riptide just in case.

The woman stiffened at the sound of my voice but didn't turn around, "Herophile, is that you?" she asked. Her voice sounded almost insane.

I shook my head even though she couldn't see me, "No ma'am."

The woman whipped around to face me, and I let out a gasp when I saw her face which was horribly distorted. Her eyes were shark-like slits and she had large fang-like teeth, drool sliding down her chin.

"You aren't my son?" she asked, inky tears were sliding down her face leaving a trail of grime, and her voice rasped with grief.

"No, uh, I don't know your son." I answered nervously as I began retreating slowly back towards the woods.

The woman noticed my retreat and quickly stood up and limped over towards me, "Wait, don't leave yet, please don't leave!" she cried as she grabbed my arm with her gnarly hands, "I don't know who you are young half-blood! I am Lamia." She answered with her raspy voice that made me nearly cringe.

The name rang a bell, and I quickly scanned my memory trying to remember who she was. Suddenly it hit me, I remembered when Annabeth was reading some book on Greek Monsters, she had told me all about Lamia.

"Hera killed your children! You became so upset that you started eating children right? And the gods cursed you."

Lamia let out a scream and her mouth lunged for my arm. I yelped and shoved her away from me just as her teeth scraped my skin.

Lamia let out a howl, and went down on all fours and charged at me. She made sure to keep any vulnerable part of her body away from me, making it very hard to try to kill her.

I tried remembering which hero had defeated Lamia, but I came up with a blank. Not only did I have to worry about Lamia, but my arm in which her fangs had grazed was beginning to feel numb and sore at the same time; poison.

Lamia circled me as I tried to think of a way to get away, and it was then that I realized that I couldn't even hold my sword upright anymore.

I cursed loudly, and picked up my sword with my other hand. I chucked Riptide at the Lamia and with her distracted, I ran back towards the camp to wake up the others.

I ran into the camp and tripped over Hermes literally, sending me flying and waking him up with a lot of swearing and yelling.

"Gods Percy what the hell was that all about?" He scowled.

His yelling had woken up Annabeth and Artemis who were both looking slightly annoyed.

Before I could catch my breath and say anything, Lamia lunged from out of the undergrowth and almost took Hermes head off.

Artemis had her bow drawn in an instant and Annabeth had pulled her dagger out just as quickly. Hermes drew a large sword that I couldn't help but notice had two snakes wrapped around it.

"Percy what's going on?" Annabeth asked.

Before I could answer her, Lamia spoke, "Oh, more delightful little children. She looked at Annabeth and Artemis and licked her chapped lips, "You two look so much like my daughters," she let out a sob, "I know you aren't though, Hera had you all killed!" she snarled and she launched herself at Artemis who quickly rolled to her left to avoid being eaten.

Annabeth gasped, "You're Lamia!"

The daemon glared at Annabeth with her slit eyes, "Smart girl, it's always the smart ones that taste the best!" she growled as she launched herself at Annabeth who was just able to move out of the way in time. Lamia landed right where Annabeth had been just mere seconds ago.

"Who's Lamia?" Artemis asked as she shot her celestial, silver arrows at the daemon.

"She was the princess of Egypt and had an affair with Lord Zeus, when her children were born Hera had them killed and Lamia was so filled with grief that she ate any child she saw." Annabeth explained as she too tried fending off the daemon, "You've never heard of her?"

Hermes shook his head as Lamia lunged at him, he tried swinging his sword through her head, but almost had his hand bitten in the process, "Not that I'm aware of, she must have been before our time."

Artemis nodded in agreement, "How do we kill it?" she asked just as Lamia sprung over her head, scratching Artemis's shoulder with her long talons.

I noticed Artemis wince as she tried sending an arrow at the daemon with no prevail.

Lamia paused and licked Artemis's blood off of her claws, "Mmm, I haven't had blood this good in a while, you my dear are worth the trouble." She screeched as she lunged at Artemis with her mouth open.

Artemis leapt out of the way just in time as Lamia crashed onto the ground where Artemis had just been, "HOW DO WE KILL IT?" Artemis asked again.

"No one's killed it before!" Annabeth said as she tried threw her dagger at the Lamia, missing it by barely a centimeter.

Lamia took her attention away from Artemis and eyed Annabeth coldly, "You my dear need to die." She lunged at Annabeth, knocking her to the ground.

I suddenly felt a light weight in my pocket and realized not a moment too soon that Riptide had returned to me.

I pulled it out and swung it through Lamia's head causing her to gasp, "NO! It can't be true! NO! NO! NO!" and she exploded into ashes.

As soon as Lamia was destroyed, I felt my adrenaline die, and I collapsed. I could feel the poison from the bite pulsing through my body and I felt ready to pass out. Quite honestly I was getting tired of monsters using poison, it was a real pain.

Annabeth rushed to my side, I noticed that she along with Artemis and Hermes were all slightly scratched up, but obviously none of them had been bitten. "Percy, what happened?"

"The Lamia's fangs were poisonous." I muttered as I tried to remain conscious.

Artemis had left my side and was searching through her bag, when she found what she was looking for; she came over to me and kneeled by my side.

"I'll just use some liquid fire, you'll be fine-"

"No! I'd rather deal with the poison!" I protested. I'm sorry, but that stuff hurt like no other.

Artemis smirked slightly as Hermes and Annabeth held me down. She rubbed some of the liquid fire on my shoulder.

I grimaced and tried to squirm away from them, but Hermes had a very strong grip.

Finally they let go of me and I felt like my arm was on fire.

Artemis smirked, "You're welcome." I rolled my eyes before I pushed myself back onto my feet.

Hermes grinned slightly before becoming more serious, "We should probably try to get out of here."

We nodded, but I was apparently the only one who realized that there was one problem, "One problem, none of us know where we are, and where the nearest town is."

"The nearest town is that way." Artemis said pointing north as she began walking in that direction.

"How do you know?" I asked irritably.

Hermes winked at me, "Never argue with the goddess of the hunt Percy." And he too followed Artemis.

Annabeth stayed by my side as we followed the two gods. "Are you okay?" she asked.

I nodded then I turned to look at her, "I'm sorry about earlier."

Annabeth shrugged, "We all make mistakes seaweed brain." She laughed and gave me a quick kiss on my cheek.

The sun was rising, and I was starting to think that I was off to a good day, naturally I was wrong…

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**Heyyz hope you liked it... btw Lamia is in fact a real daemon from Greek Mythology, you can seriously look it up if you doubt me... Any way, questions, comments, concerns or just wanna say hi? Leave a review! They are treated like amazing peices of Halloween candy LOL thanks again! Have a shimmering Day! XOXO**

**~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble;)  
**


	10. Lonely for Her

**Hmm, DC is an interesting city... I actually despise this song by Jack's Mannequinn but I love that band so that is why this chapter is named after that song. You know, I read this interesting quote the other day, it was that if I write then you review, and if you review, I write more... its a cycle :) yes so I do enjoy reviews alot. So originally this chapter was going to have more info in it, but I decided to break it up a bit. I hope you like it, and if not then, I'm very very sorry :( Oh DC you make me laugh ;) I had a good vacation. Anywhoo, on with the ff.**

**~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble ;)  
**

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By the time we reached the nearest town, we were all exhausted and starving.

"McDonalds anyone?" Hermes suggested pointing to a sign for one a few blocks away.

Artemis made a face, "I've already had to eat that oily garbage once and I'd really prefer not to eat there again."

Hermes frowned at the goddess and turned to Annabeth and I, "Okay, consensus time, would you rather keep looking until we until we find a restaurant that satisfies the picky eater over there," he pointed at Artemis who glared at him, "Or would you rather eat at McDonalds."

Annabeth and I glanced at each other and my stomach let out a loud growl, "McDonalds is fine."

Hermes smirked, "The boy, the girl, and the stomach all agree with McDonalds, sorry Ar, you've been overruled."

We walked to the McDonalds and ordered our 'breakfast'. Artemis ordered the healthiest looking thing on the menu which was a small fruit parfait, which she still grumbled about. Hermes, Annabeth, and I on the other hand, wolfed down our food so fast that the janitor of the restaurant actually asked us if we were homeless.

We all assured him that we weren't and he walked away muttering something about teenagers eating too much.

When he was out of earshot, we decided to talk about our plans for saving the gods and Thalia. "So, first things first, does anyone have any idea as to where we are?" Hermes asked.

"Buglebut, Minnesota." Artemis answered without giving it a second thought.

Hermes' face cracked into a grin, "We're in a bugle's butt?"

Annabeth shook her head and I tried not to grin. Artemis just looked annoyed.

"Hermes you are probably the most immature-"

"Hey! Boy! Do not mock this town! It was named after my great grandfather James P. Buglebut." The janitor snapped as he mopped around our table.

Hermes face instantly went blank, "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know, honestly if I would have known I would never-"

Artemis interrupted him, "Sir do you by any chance know where the nearest train station is?"

The janitor frowned, "Okay, if you aren't homeless than you're definitely runaways, and if you are I have permission to contact the authorities."

Hermes gave a fake laugh and smiled, "Oh Buglebut the janitor, you make me laugh. These adolescents," he said indicating to us, "Are under my supervision. You see, my cousins and I, were originally supposed to fly to California for our Aunt's wedding, but Marcia here," he said putting a hand on Artemis's shoulder who just looked at him incredulously, "lost all of our tickets, so now we only have enough money for a train ride to California, and if we don't get there in time, my dear Aunt will write us out of her will and we would hate for that to happen." Hermes said honestly.

The janitor stared at Hermes as if he had just spoken gibberish, after a minute or so he let out a sigh, "That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard."

Hermes frowned and looked offended, "Which part, the part about being written out of the will or the fact that I said her name is Marcia? Cause let me assure you, our Aunt will most definitely write us out of the will, and our parents were big Brady Bunch fans."

The janitor opened up his mouth to speak but just looked stunned, Annabeth and I tried to hide our laughter and even Artemis looked like she was trying to contain her laughter.

"No, I would have believed your entire story if you hadn't said that they were under your supervision." The janitor laughed, "But what the hell, I don't really care if you're really runaways or if you really are going to some relative's wedding, the nearest train station is about two and a half days by foot and about three and a half hours by car. It's located in Big Lake. But if the cops ask, I don't know you."

Hermes frowned, "Well thank you sir, we appreciate your help. Marcia, Cindy, Greg, and I will just get going. It's been a pleasure talking with you." Hermes stood up and the rest of us stood up to follow him.

On our way out I could have sworn I heard to old man muttering something about crazy kids. I grinned and followed Hermes out into the sunlight.

Hermes didn't stop until we reached a local park. It was still too early for kids to play there and dew could still be seen on the ground.

"Okay, Marcia? What was that all about Hermes?" Artemis asked him seriously, although I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

"Those are our pseudonyms. Yours is Marcia, Annabeth yours is Cindy, Percy yours is Greg, and mine is Peter." Hermes said proudly.

"No offense Lord Hermes but why do we need pseudonyms?" Annabeth asked as inoffensively as possible.

"Because, my dear little cousin Cindy, we want to travel incognito." Hermes answered proudly.

"But why?" Artemis asked irritably, "And do you even know what those words mean?"

Hermes shrugged, "Marcia, do you see me questioning your motives? No, now don't question mine. Now that that's cleared up, I say we get walking. You heard the weird janitor man, the train station's two days away, so we should probably get going."

It was then that I remembered my dream from last night, "Wait, I had a dream last night, right before I took over on guard duty."

"Why didn't you say anything before?" Artemis asked irritably.

I frowned, "Sorry, I got distracted when the psycho Lamia trying to attack us."

Annabeth shook her head, "What happened in your dream?"

I explained to them what happened and afterwards everyone was silent. Artemis looked extremely troubled and I though I wasn't sure shy, Hermes looked equally troubled. Annabeth just looked stunned.

It was Artemis who broke the silence, "So Thalia's alive?"

I nodded, "That's what it seemed like as of last night."

"Why do you keep getting these dreams Percy?" Hermes asked, and I could tell he was in one of his rare serious moments because he didn't call me Greg.

I shrugged, "I don't know." I turned to Artemis, "You aren't having these dreams either?"

Artemis shook her head, "As twins, we share emotions and pain, and we always seem to know where the other is, but Apollo and I have never shared dreams…It is strange that you can see what my brother's doing though."

I nodded, and Annabeth thought for a moment, "Can gods create empathy links?

Artemis nodded, "Yes, it is very rare but I suppose if they wanted to they could."

"Is there any chance that Apollo created an empathy link between himself with Percy?"

Artemis frowned and studied me with her silver eyes like she had the first time I had met her. It was still just as uncomfortable. "I don't see why he would, but I suppose it's possible."

Hermes frowned, then clapped his hands together, "Well, at least we know that your lieutenant is safe-ish. We should probably start walking. It's going to be a long two-and-a-half days."

We then began our long walk to Big Lake. We tried to avoid towns and streets as much as possible. The last thing we wanted was someone calling the police on us thinking that we were runaways.

We walked throughout most of the day, only stopping to eat a small snack or take a quick nap. By the time we reached a small town called Little Creek we were all about a day and a few hours away from Big Lake and we were all about ready to pass out.

Little Creek was the tiniest town I had ever seen. It was in the middle of no where, surrounded by miles of forests with only small dirt roads running through it. A small creek split the tiny town in half making it look even smaller. A small convenience store sat at the corner of one of the roads, a church was located a few houses down and a small inn sat in the middle of the town next to the small school.

People would walk by, all looking dreary and bored, and occasionally we would see a child playing on the streets.

The sky was beginning to grow dark so we figured we'd stay at the inn here. The inn was only about the size of a larger house or apartment. The sign outside of the hotel was faded and almost falling over.

**TEH SUTMY YUTSD INN**

_Wmra ealsM Wmraer Hpsioylitayt_

I squinted trying to read the faded letters, but with the dim lighting and my dyslexia it was near impossible. I glanced at Annabeth for help but could tell she was having just as much trouble as I was.

"What does it say?" I asked.

Artemis cocked her head to the side, and Hermes squinted; he too seemed to have trouble reading it. "The musty dusty inn. Warm meals, warmer hospitality."

Annabeth frowned, "You couldn't read it?"

Artemis shrugged, "Gods have dyslexia too. It's not as bad as it is for demigods and usually we can decipher what something says after a while."

Annabeth frowned, "huh, I never knew that."

Hermes shrugged and walked up the creaky steps to the porch of the inn. An older woman sat in a rocking chair on the porch. She had a large pink sunhat on and wore large glasses that made her eyes look like fried eggs. She was sewing a sock that looked like it could fit a Barbie Doll.

Hermes walked up to the woman, "Um ma'am, do you know where I could find the owner of this inn?"

"You're looking at her hot stuff. My name is Stephanie, how may I help you?" the woman answered without looking up from her sewing.

Hermes looked slightly uncomfortable but continued, "Me and my cousins need a place to stay and-"

"My cousins and I." the woman interrupted.

Hermes frowned, "what?"

"You were being grammatically incorrect. You said 'me and my cousins' when you should have said 'my cousins and I'. See the difference?" the woman asked still not looking away from her sewing.

Hermes frowned he was obviously losing his patience, "Whatever, look lady we really just need-"

The woman frowned and smacked Hermes over the head with a large book that sat on the small table next to her, "Look hot stuff, I don't care how sexy you think you are, if you don't have proper grammar you and your cousins will not be welcomed here." And with that she went back to her sewing.

Hermes threw his arms up in the air in defeat and looked at us desperately. Artemis, Annabeth, and I just laughed. Finally Artemis walked up to the porch in front of the lady, "Ma'am?"

The woman looked up from her sewing, "Do you like to read?"

Artemis frowned obviously caught off guard by the random question, "Uh, I typically don't, why?"

The woman made a _tsk_ing sound and went back to her sewing. We waited in silence for a moment before the woman spoke again," Do any of you like to read?"

We all shook our heads save for Annabeth who nodded, "I read ma'am."

The woman frowned and went back to her sewing for a moment before speaking again, "I suppose I _could _let you stay, but only if you answer my riddle correctly." She turned to Annabeth, "And the little reader can't answer it." The woman sniffed and turned back to her sewing, "What can bring back the dead; make us cry, make us laugh, make us young; born in an instant yet lasts a life time?"

Hermes frowned, "Do you make all of your customers answer a riddle?"

"Never answer a question with a question." Stephanie scolded.

I thought of the riddle. It seemed so blatantly obvious, yet for some reason I couldn't think of the answer.

"A memory." Artemis murmured she seemed distant.

I glanced over at her and the woman seemed to have heard her as well, "What was that?"

Artemis looked up at the woman, "It's a memory isn't it?"

The woman nodded, "Well, I suppose I have to let you stay now don't I."

She woman stood up on ancient feet and walked to the door of the inn, "I never gathered your names and I make it my job to know everyone who stays in my inn so what are your names?"

Hermes grinned and waggled his eyebrow at me, "I'm Peter ma'am, and these are my cousins Marcia, Cindy, and Greg."

The woman turned and glared at Hermes up through her large glasses, "I'm pretty sure your cousins can speak for themselves Peter."

Hermes opened his mouth to argue but closed it again, "Sorry ma'am."

Stephanie ignored him and brought us to a larger room with one king sized bed, and one daybed. "Sorry this is all the room I have for now. There's only two beds but I figure as family you can share the kind bed and I'll bring you all more blankets and someone can sleep on the couch. Breakfast will be served to your rooms at eight-thirty and dinner will be at served at eight. I'll ask that you keep the room in order as much as possible. Once again I'm sorry for the lack of room."

Hermes grinned, "Don't worry we don't mind sharing a bed." Hermes said suggestively as he winked at Artemis who looked ready to throw him through the window.

The woman frowned at Hermes once more before leaving us to ourselves. Hermes grinned at me before flopping himself onto the king sized bed.

"Ooh, it's a feather bed!"

Artemis shook her head and sat down on the couch. Annabeth and I sat next to her.

Hermes grinned wickedly, "So, who wants to share a bed?" he turned to Annabeth and I, "Lovebirds? Care to share a bed?"

Annabeth's face turned scarlet and I could feel mine burning as well. "I can sleep on the couch." I muttered.

Hermes rolled his eyes at us before turning to Artemis; he waggled his eyebrows at her and gave her one of his grins, "Artemis?"

She scowled at him before chucking a pillow at him, "Hermes grow up."

Hermes frowned and picked up the pillow before chucking it back at Artemis. "Fine, I'll keep the bed to myself then, because no offense Annabeth but you look too much like your mom and sleeping with your mom would be a big no-no, and Percy," Hermes looked at me, "Nope, I refuse to sleep with you."

Annabeth and I started laughing and Artemis just shook her head.

After a while, Artemis had fallen asleep on couch and I had come pretty close to crashing on the single bed. Annabeth yawned and stood up, "I'm going to go take a shower seeing as I don't know when I'll be able to use fresh water again."

I nodded and almost before she had left the room I had fallen asleep.

_There was no way they had my sister. I refused to believe it. Just because they had her lieutenant doesn't mean they have her. I leaned against the cell wall._

_ My entire body was aching and my face and arms were bleeding. My head felt as if it would split open. _

_ Katrina walked in. She smiled at me as if she had done nothing wrong and we were best friends. "Hi Apollo."_

_ I glared up at her, "Katrina."_

_ She frowned, "So you still don't believe we have your sister huh?"_

_ He shook his head, "She's not here Katrina. I would know."_

_ She shook her head, "Whatever don't believe me then. We have all the time in the world, Kronos will rise one way or the other."_

A sharp scream woke me from my dream. My head shot up and I saw that the scream had awoken Artemis and Hermes as well.

Artemis had her small dagger out and Hermes had his caduceus at the ready. Annabeth was… Not back from her shower yet. _Crap._

I hopped up and ran out of the room. I ran into the family bathroom and I saw Annabeth struggling as some black force pulled her through what appeared to be a portal.

Artemis and Hermes followed me. I ran forward and tried to fend Annabeth from the black force that was dragging her to the portal, but the force was strong.

Artemis rushed to Annabeth and tried helping her up, but suddenly the black force gave a strong jerk and I saw Annabeth grab onto the small, silver bracelet on Artemis's wrist right before she disappeared into the dark fog.

With a strong blast, I felt myself get thrown across the bathroom, I whacked my head off of something hard, but for some reason I felt numb to the pain.

When the fog cleared, I saw that Artemis was sprawled on the floor, her wrist was bleeding and she looked shocked but otherwise seemed fine. Hermes had been thrown into the bathtub and was groaning about something or another, and Annabeth was gone.

My best friend, my girlfriend, my confidant. She was gone.

* * *

**Duh, duh duh. Yes so now Annabeth and Thalia are gone... What to do what to do... Things are going to get very awkward for Percy... Once again, comments, concerns, cc, or just wanna say hi? Leave a review! THey are greatly appreciated. Thanks!**

**~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble;)  
**


	11. Dark Blue

**Hola chicas y chicos! Ugh I'm very irritated right now. Anyone else not recieving messages from fanfiction... Usually when I have a review/fav story alert/ story alert, I get like a gajillion email... but no not one! And I know that's not possible cuz I've gotten multiple reviews so... As u may know, I always answer my reviewers or at least I try to... but since I didn't have the link cuz ff is being all funky, I'm going to answer my reviewer responses now...**

**Emily a Huntress of Artemis- Thank you for the review :) and yes, Artemis is stuck with two idiots LOL ;D Thanks!**

** Aethers Chosen- Yes... it would be very very very uncomfortable... especially with the bizarre relationship b/t Artemis and Hermes... the more awkward for Percy the better I feel ;D Thanks!**

**the ghost king- yea, crappy writing on my part... I kinda explained a wee bit more in this chapter in relations with the bracelet... it wasn't supposed to be Annabeth who made Artemis bleed... I'll probably end up reediting that part... Thanks for the review though :D**

**Deviltrigger Dante- No, no couples in this story other than Percy and Annabeth... I'm not gonna change something like that sorry... besides, I've tried writing and ArtemisxPercy chapter for a different fanfic and lets just say it was a very awkward and ooc chapter to write so sorry... no ArtemisxPercy... Thanks for the review and I hope this update was fast enough ;) Thanks**

**Demigod1315- hahaha I haven't read any sherlock holmes but yes there is something very strange about Stephanie owner of the musty dusty inn... I'm not sure what it is yet.. but I'll figure something out ;D Thnaks again and glad to hear your hooked :D thanks again!**

**I think that's all the reviews I've missed from this chapter... I'm still very irked at ff but what can you do :p hmmm oh yea, I just realized that in the last chapter I had percy say 'the force is strong' all i could think of was starwars hahaha... well... now before this AN is longer than the chapter... I give you... Dark Blue ;)**

**~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble ;)  
**

* * *

Annabeth was gone. I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact. An hour had passed since she had gone missing and I had wandered up to the roof of the inn that overlooked the town. I watched as the sun set behind the dark forest.

I remembered back to the time when Annabeth had gone missing after the manticore attack at Westover Hall. That seemed like a lifetime ago. So much had happened since then…

I was almost so lost in thought that I didn't realize that Artemis had joined me on the roof.

"Cool view."

I didn't acknowledge her. I really just wanted to be left alone.

"We'll find Annabeth, Perseus," Artemis said after a minute, "Just like we'll find Thalia, and Apollo… and the other gods." She sounded exhausted.

"Who do you see when Death touches you?"

Artemis froze; my question had obviously caught her off guard. "I… um… Why?"

"Never answer a question with a question." I said monotonously.

Artemis glared at me, "Why do you want to know?" she asked, quietly.

I shrugged. I honestly wasn't sure the answer to that question. I guess I just wanted to know that I wasn't the only one who saw, well, dead people.

Artemis sighed, "What do you see?"

I looked at her for the first time since she had joined me up here, "I see people I knew, or know. All of them are dying or are already dead. When I was in those tunnels yesterday I saw Annabeth. She was dead. And whenever Death touches my skin, I see that… I see her."

Artemis was silent the entire time, she avoided my gaze and stared out at the fading sun, the night was starting to turn a purple color.

"Who do you see?" I asked again.

Artemis let out a sigh; suddenly she looked so much older than she normally did. Usually she looked happy and carefree; the never tiring huntress, but now she looked stressed, and tired, even slightly sad. It was odd. "I see Zoë, Orion," she took a shaky breath, "I've been seeing my mother a lot recently too."

I frowned, I had been there when Zoë had died, and I had heard the tale of Orion, yet I was unfamiliar with any stories of Artemis and Apollo's mother, I didn't even know her name.

"My mother's name was Leto. She was a titan the daughter of Phoebe. Zeus fell in love with my mother before he was married to Hera. After he married Hera, she realized that Leto was pregnant with Zeus's children, my brother and I." She took a breath, and I realized that she was unconsciously rubbing her wrist where her bracelet had been, "After we were born Hera did everything she could to get rid of my mother. She felt that Zeus was still too fond of my mother. So one day, while Apollo and I were hunting, Hera sent a very large and very venomous snake after my mother, when we came back, she was already dead." Artemis looked so distant it was as if she were a world away.

I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for her. I knew Hera wasn't exactly one of the 'friendliest' Olympians, but I honestly couldn't see her _killing_ anyone. It seemed almost out of character.

Artemis seemed to be reading my thoughts, "She was much crueler back then. She's mellowed out a bit over the years."

I nodded, "Oh. I'm sorry about your mom."

Artemis shrugged like it was no big deal, but I could tell it still bothered her. "You don't have to be sorry. It wasn't your fault. It happened a long time ago anyway."

I nodded, "I don't think I'd be able to make it without my mom." I said thinking back. My mom was always there for me. She always knew what to say and what to do. I needed to IM her once I was done with this quest.

Artemis shrugged, "I survived." She seemed very guarded; obviously she wasn't going to tell me anymore. "Well we should probably get back to our room. Room service should be coming in a few minutes with our dinner."

I nodded but I had to ask one more question, "Did she give you that bracelet; the one that that weird shadow thing took?"

Artemis stopped rubbing her wrist and glanced up at me, "Yes. She gave it to me about a week before she died." She turned and began walking back toward our room.

I followed her, but stole one more look at the dying sun. The night was approaching painting the town dark blue. "I wonder what kind of room service they have here." I wondered aloud.

Artemis shrugged I could tell she was trying to forget about our previous conversation, "I don't know, but I'm very curious to find out. That Stephanie lady was weird enough so I have no doubt that her staff will be equally weird if not weirder."

We walked back into the room and Hermes was sprawled out on the bed and had his eyes glued to the TV screen. "Hey, hey, guys, you need to see this."

Artemis sat down on the edge of the bed obviously trying to avoid Hermes as much as possible. "What is it?"

"They just had some weird announcement about strange things happening in California. Apparently there have been three suicides in the Los Angles area; there have been ten reported murders, another three kidnappings, fires, earthquakes… all in or around the LA area."

"You're kidding me?"

Hermes shook his head, "Check it out."

A woman with her hair in a tight bun appeared on the screen, "I am here in Los Angles, California, where a series of peculiar and tragic events have been occurring that are keeping the locals very busy and very concerned. Within the past ninety-six hours, chaos has broken out; ten people have been reported killed or missing within the LA area. Officials believe it could be result of an unknown drug-gang within the city, but they are still investigating. Three LA residents have been reported dead after committing suicide! The atmosphere here in LA feels as if the whole city is grieving. Not only do the residents have to deal with all of these tragic accidents, they are also concerned for their children's safety. Eleven-year-old Anne Bergoan, Fifteen-year-old Michael Frank, and eight-year-old Rachel McLoughner, all from the LA area have been reported missing as of Friday morning. Head Detective O'Brien is doing his best to try to locate the missing children, but with no success so far.

"While the police department is busy with the mysterious crimes, the fire department has been busy rushing around Los Angles reporting to fire after fire while trying to help the city clean up after the earthquake that shook through here early this morning. Now is definitely not a good time to be traveling to LA-." Hermes shut the TV off.

Artemis and I just stared in silence at the blank screen. Artemis was the first to recover from shock, "Oh my gods"

Hermes nodded, his face was grim.

"How can that happen?" I asked.

"It's not supposed to." Artemis answered, she looked equally grim.

"I guess Katrina wanted to show everyone how powerful she really is." Hermes muttered bitterly.

"But why would she practically destroy a whole city?" I asked.

Artemis shrugged, "She wants to make sure the gods see how powerful she is. She wants them to be nervous. It's easy for a god to ignore a few deaths or murders if it's spread out, but if she shows them how much damage she can do to a whole city in a short period of time, she can really make some of the gods concerned."

Hermes nodded his head in agreement.

"We have to get to LA soon." Artemis muttered.

Before we could discuss our problem anymore, a knock on the door interrupted us. "Room service." A raspy voice squawked from the other side of the door.

Artemis got up and answered the door. "Hello-"

"Ubba kabooba"

Artemis let out a yelp and started cursing the room service in Ancient Greek.

Hermes glanced at me with a humored and confused expression; he then stood up and walked to the door to see what had happened. I got up to follow him.

Artemis was at the door shaking her hand and cursing at the person at the door. When I saw who was at the door I almost laughed. Five two-foot tall creatures stood at the door. They wore small tuxedoes and two of them were carrying a pitcher of water, and the other three were carrying a large platter. On most occasions, I wouldn't find anything too horribly wrong with five two-foot people delivering our food, but these creatures delivering our food were anything but people. Their skin was tinted a sun burnt-red color and they were totally bald except for a few tufts of black hair. They had pointy ears and large pig-like noses, and they were all grinning; each showing off their little fangs.

The three that were holding the platter made a grunting noise and hoisted the platter up as close to me as possible, "Ooh! Ooh! Goont! Goont!"

I reached down to take the platter from them but just as I did, the leader jumped up and bit my hand. I let out a loud string of curses and the one who had bit me, rolled on the floor laughing in a way that sort of reminded me of Chip and Dale from Disney.

Hermes grinned slightly, "Oh, your Kobaloi." He mused to himself.

"What's a Kobaloi?" I asked.

Hermes grinned, "You two really need to read up on your Greek monsters. A Kobalos is a mischievous little elf-like creature. They're fond of trickery and scaring mortals. They bite you if you try taking anything from them without paying them in return. They have a very distinguishable laugh. You know Walt Disney was a demigod and while on a quest he came across a pair of Kobalos and that was how he came up with the idea for Chip and Dale."

"Good to know Hermes… Now pay them so we can eat."

* * *

**HEyy! What'd you think? Comments, questions, concerns, or just wanna say hi? Leave a review! They are greatly appreciated! thanks again! ArtemisFrimm is out...  
~ArtemisFrimm (gobble gobble ;)**


	12. Misery

Ho Ho Hello! Ummm, sorry for not updating anything in almost forever but I couldn't think of anything to type (as you may know, I type as I go, I have no set gameplan so even I don't know how this'll end yet ^_^) and I was away for Thanksgiving and I was irked at Fanfiction for the longest time because I wasn't getting review alerts but I know why now! So I'm happy, this'll be the last time I'll have to thank you for reviewing within my chapter! So here it goes...

Glacion God of Ice- Oh my goodness, thank you so much! That seriously made my day! Sorry for not updating so long and thanks so much for the review! It meant a lot!

Emily a Huntress of Artemis- I figured out why I haven't gotten emails! Go to Alerts I think and go to the settings, it said all of mine were disabled so I enabled them and I got emails again! Glad that chapter made you happy and I hope this one is better... :)

the ghost king- yea, but who wouldn't be annoyed if a Kobaloi bit them? LOL... Glad you liked it and sorry for not updating in forever! Thanks again!

sybretooth- Thanks, I'm glad it entertained you!

Deviltrigger Dante- Sorry for not updating in a while, but I made this chapter extra long (by my standards) so I hope you enjoy! Sorry for the no ArtemisxPercy thing :)

Demigod1315- Wait, do you mean Hurricane Katrina? No I really didn't think of that, but that is interesting now that you mention it... And yes, as you will find out, Stephanie is more than just a grammer-obsessive old lady... :)

gest- here you go... Thanks!

Please enjoy!

**~ArtemisFrimm (hohoho)  
**

* * *

The following hour consisted of interesting conversations, led mostly by Hermes. Artemis would listen and shake her head or laugh occasionally, but otherwise remaining silent. I tried listening to what Hermes said but my thoughts kept straying back to Annabeth. So that was our evening until Artemis let out a silent yawn.

Hermes clapped his hands together, "Well, I suppose that we should probably get to bed. Exhaustion is never helpful on a quest." He turned to Artemis who shook her head at him. "Well Artemis, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there are three of us and only two places to sleep. Obviously I am not sleeping with Percy, but unsurprisingly I have no problem sleeping with you." He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.

Artemis shook her head, "You're worse than Apollo when it comes to my hunters." She muttered.

"So is that a 'yes'?" Hermes asked.

Artemis rolled her eyes and I couldn't help but crack a grin at Hermes persistence. "Hermes I would rather not sleep at all then sleep with you."

Hermes frowned and mocked being offended, "Aw Ar that cuts me deep. So are you sleeping with Percy then? Because honestly I don't know what he has that I don't."

Artemis glared at him and proceeded in throwing a pillow at him, "I'll sleep on the floor."

Hermes frowned, "Well then that's not very fair to you, and it makes me and Percy look much uncivilized." Artemis opened her mouth to say something but Hermes cut her off, "Don't comment. Anyway, so if you refuse to sleep with me then I guess I'll have to let you keep the bed while I sleep on the floor."

"I have no problem sleeping on the floor." I suggested.

Artemis shook her head, "Guys, I'm fine on the floor!"

Hermes nodded, "Then it's settled, we'll all sleep on the floor."

Artemis rolled her eyes, "That's stupid!"

Hermes shrugged, "Whatever, but I call that corner by the heating duct. I get chilly easily."

Since we were all to stubborn to sleep in the bed or on the sofa, we all ended up falling asleep on the floor, which, by the way, is not the most comfortable place to sleep. After tossing and turning for over an hour, I finally managed to fall asleep; and boy was that a mistake.

_I let out a groan. My head was throbbing and I felt as though I had cracked a few ribs. The cell I was in was far worse than any mortal cell. The floors were damp and filthy and littered with broken glass. The air was so cold that I could see my breath. The bars that kept us in were rusted over badly and with the damp air, they would be the perfect place to harbor anaerobic bacteria. Basically, you could get some pretty nasty Tetanus here._

_The girl I had been trying to escape with had been trembling in fevered dreams for the longest time. I had tried waking her up with no prevail. My sister's lieutenant Thalia had been unconscious ever since she had been brought here, and the blonde daughter-of-Athena had been sobbing as her body was wracked with seizures and fitful dreams. _

_I had tried helping them, all of them, but my powers had been practically drained since I had arrived here. Suddenly I felt the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms stand up. I looked up into the face of Death for what seemed like the hundredth time since I had arrived here._

"_Death." I greeted the creature like an old friend._

'_Your sister isn't cooperating. We are running out of time and the Titan Lord is growing impatient!'_

_The creature's voice sent chills down my spine but I put on a grin and laughed, "How can Kronos be running out of time? Isn't he the Titan of time? You know, for a creepy shadow creature you sure have a great sense of humor."_

_I felt a tremor of cold air, obviously pissing off Death wasn't the smartest thing to do. I didn't flinch as it pulled back a skeletal hand to smack me, but it froze. I heard a raspy noise coming from underneath Death's cloak. It sounded kind of like a cat choking on a hair ball while raking its claws down a chalkboard; I assumed Death was laughing._

_Before I realized what was happening, the girl in the fevered sleep began thrashing around and screaming, "Stop! Please! Please! Please!"_

_I rushed to her side, "Nike, shh, Nike it's alright." but she continued to scream and clawed at me and herself._

_Suddenly her body went limp but every few minutes she would tremble and let out a small whimper._

'_Never try testing my patience again young god, and maybe I won't kill your sister.'_

_I felt the blood leave my face, "You can't kill her. She's immortal. Besides, she's not here. I would know if she was."_

_Death chuckled again, and threw a silver bracelet at me. It was the one given to Artemis before our mother had died, she never took it off, it can't be… 'I can do some many things you can't even imagine young god. I'm the exception to the rule. When I am done, with you, you will plead for me to kill you.' It reached out and stroked my cheek with his icy hand. I screamed._

I woke up screaming, and by the sounds of things I wasn't the only one who had had a bad dream. Artemis was panting and I could see silver tears sliding down her cheek. Hermes was comforting her and when he looked at me I could see his eyes were wide with shock.

"What happened?" Hermes asked as both Artemis and I quieted down.

"Death's coming." Artemis said shakily.

I frowned, that made no sense, "No, he's with Apollo and Annabeth and Thalia and some other girl. He was torturing them!"

Artemis shook her head, "No, it's coming! Death's about a mile away from this town! We have to leave!"

Hermes glanced between both Artemis and I wondering who to believe. "Um, Percy are you sure you weren't having a bad dream?"

I shook my head, "It was real! I was seeing as Apollo again! Annabeth and Thalia were there too! And some other girl, Nike, I think, Death was torturing her! She was screaming and begging it to stop."

Hermes face paled, "Is she alright?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. She was trembling and whimpering."

Hermes thought for a moment, "Artemis are you sure _you_ weren't having a bad dream?

Artemis didn't respond; she was staring out of the hotel window. Hermes and I looked out as well. The town suddenly seemed a lot darker and colder. "It's here." Artemis whispered.

"Death?" Hermes asked.

Artemis nodded and instantly began gathering our stuff.

"How can it be here if it was in my dream?" I asked.

Hermes shook his head, "We'll worry about that later, right now, let's try to get out of here." He threw open the door only to find Stephanie standing in front of us. Her ancient eyes were focused on the carpet.

"Leaving so soon hot stuff?" she asked.

Hermes glanced back at Artemis and I. Obviously he also found it creepy that the inn-keeper was standing outside of our door at half-past midnight. "Uh, yea, change of plans, we have to get going. Thank you so much for your hospitality. How much do we owe you?"

Stephanie growled, "But it's not even breakfast yet? The Kobaloi were so looking forward to it."

Artemis glanced at me looking concerned. Why didn't Stephanie ever look up at us, and why was she still wearing her pink sunhat?

"It's always so nice seeing family getting along so well." Stephanie spoke again, her eyes never leaving the floor.

Hermes nodded slowly, "Yes, I suppose."

"You know I had a family once. We got along until my stupid sister got herself and me and my other sister cursed." Stephanie snarled.

Suddenly a scream broke through the silence of the night.

"Hermes we have to leave!" Artemis hissed.

Stephanie frowned, "You can't leave! My Kobaloi are hungry, and I can't deny them fresh meat, if your reading friend were here I would have spared you but…"

Okay, Stephanie was starting to sound like a demonic librarian or something.

"So Perseus, do you have any siblings?" Stephanie spoke.

_How does she know my name? _"Uh, I have a half-brother." I answered unsurely.

Stephanie nodded, "I had a sister; two of them. We were the prettiest women in Greece until that awful day! You've actually met my sister Perseus, on your first quest. She was such a beauty until her stupidity and lust won her over."

I frowned, "Your sister's Medusa?"

Artemis's eyes widened, "She's Stheno! The oldest of the Gorgons! She's killed more people than Medusa and her other sister combined!"

I thought of all of the statues in Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium; _how could this woman have killed more people?_

Stheno smiled and took off her sunhat revealing dozens of hissing serpents. "Come Kobaloi! Time for breakfast!"

I pulled out Riptide, and I saw that Hermes had his caduceus out in baseball bat form, and Artemis had her bow drawn. A loud trampling sound filled my ears as over a hundred Kobaloi ran up the stairs! Their eyes looked like black slits and they were all baring their fangs and laughing maniacally in their Chip'n'Dale like manner.

Artemis began firing arrow after arrow as Hermes and I swung at as many Kobaloi as possible, "Why on earth would Walt Disney create cartoon characters after these guys?" I asked Hermes irritably.

Hermes shrugged, "Beats me, but you know, if you look past the fact that they're trying to eat us, they are pretty cute."

"Hermes you are insane!" Artemis yelled over the Kobaloi laughter.

"It's the laugh I think, it gets me every time, I mean it's just so darn cute!" Hermes argued.

Before Artemis could respond, a sickening cold feeling entered the room, freezing everyone, including the Kobaloi, in their tracks.

A large black shadow began oozing into the room until Death stood in front of us. The Kobaloi stared at Death, their lips quivered, and all at once, they let out a horrified shriek.

Stheno let out a scream as well, but hers was more out of fury. "Kobaloi, what are you doing? Kill the heroes!"

_I'm afraid I can't let you kill them Gorgon. They are of too much importance. _Death spoke in his rattling voice.

"No! My Kobaloi are hungry and I must avenge my sister's death. I'll kill you if you try to stop me!"

I felt a small tug on my hand as Artemis slowly began leading me and Hermes out of the room. Death didn't seem to notice.

Death laughed in his choking sort of way, and in an instant every single Kobaloi fell dead. They didn't dissolve into ashes like most monsters do when you kill them; they just lay dead on the ground, their lifeless eyes staring at us in pain.

We were in the hallway when Stheno let out a scream of sorrow, "NO! Not my babies! You! I'll kill you! I'll- I'll-" she didn't get to finish her sentence because in a black flash, Stheno fell dead as well.

"Run." I heard Artemis whisper in my ear as she and Hermes fled down the stairs away from the hotel from Hell.

The town was in chaos. People were running and crying and screaming and occasionally some would drop dead right out of the blue.

"There's more than one." Artemis said as we sprinted towards the woods. That's when I saw it, about a hundred creatures just like Death flying around the city people were dropping dead left and right, it made me feel sick, but I knew I couldn't stop running.

Suddenly I heard Annabeth scream and I stopped in my tracks. I saw her shadow just behind a burning building. "Annabeth!" I tried running for her but I felt someone holding me back. Hermes was grabbing my arm.

"C'mon Percy that's not her!"

"No! It's her! She's in trouble!"

I somehow or another shoved Hermes out of the way as I began running towards Annabeth, mesmerized.

Right as I was about to reach her, I felt a sharp pain in my ankle and I collapsed from the pain. I had to help her though! I began crawling towards her.

I felt someone pick me up and before I realized what was happening I was moving away from Annabeth. I started clawing and kicking at whoever had me, I had to save Annabeth, but suddenly her shadow morphed into another one of the Deaths and it rushed towards us.

"Don't look!" I heard Artemis shout from somewhere in front of me. I shut my eyes and behind my eyelids I saw I bright light, and heard the sound of nails on a chalkboard and suddenly Death was no longer following us.

Hermes didn't put me down until we were deep in the forest. Then he didn't so much as put me down as he did drop me.

I winced as the pain in my heel caused me to pass out…

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So... what'cha think? Comments, Questions, Concerns, or just wanna say 'hi'? LEave a review! They make my day lol... Thanks again!

~ArtemisFrimm (hohoho)

**BRING ON THE EGGNOG!  
**


	13. Killer Queen

**Heyy Happy New Year/Christmas (-I'm a smidgen late on that one) Sorry for not updating in forever. I meant to update on the 22nd but I ended up having to go to the emergency room to get my inflamed appendix removed :p blah, that was not a fun experience. I got a new laptop for Christmas, so I'll be able to update more often without being interrupted by my little brother who must look at pellet guns online every single day. :P This chapter is slightly irksome in my oppinion just because of the shortness, but I do hope you enjoy none-the-less. **

**So, I have changed the name of both this one and the sequel back to the original name. It's been bothering me the similarites between it and my other ff story, so yes, it is back to normal, sorry for the confusion and sorry about the short chapter.**

**Recently I've opened up a fictionpress account and I have posted the first chapter of my first oc story on there and I'd greatly appreciate it. My account name on that site is Emilys-world-of-disbelief, you can find the link on my profile. PLease check it out and leave a review. Thanks**

**Thanks so much for all the awesome support I've gotten on this story and I hope that this new year I continue to please :) thanks again!**

**~ArtemisFrimm**

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_I watched as another shadow creature, identical to Death glided into the room and stopped in front of the grim reaper. "They escaped into the woods." The new shadow creature spoke._

_Even though I couldn't see Death's face, I could tell that he was seriously pissed off. The room turned impossibly icy and dark. "How could you let that happen?" Death hissed._

"_The girl," the shadow creature jerked its head towards me, "That one's sister, she appeared in her immortal form, it was impossibly bright. Scared some of the regime, and destroyed a few members."_

"_My sister's not here?" I inquired, catching the shadow creature's slip up._

_Death looked at the other shadow creature that seemed to realize his mistake. Death spoke, "Katrina, come here." Death spoke calmly._

_Almost instantly the demonic dusty-haired girl scurried into the room, "Yes?"_

"_Escort my second in command to the bright room." Death said._

_Katrina's face paled, but she nodded, "Fine." She and the other shadow creature exited the room, and after about a minute or so, I could hear a loud shriek that caused me to shiver involuntarily. I didn't have to be the god of prophecy to know that the other shadow creature was now dead._

_Death let out a bone-chilling laugh before turning back to me, "Alright, we do not have your insufferable sister, we only said that for your cooperation."_

"_Why do you need my cooperation?" I asked._

"_We need your blood." Death answered simply._

"_To make generated demigods?" I asked._

_Death laughed again and I began to tremble, "We aren't interested in just making demigods anymore. Didn't Katrina mention how successful she was as a prototype? She's not a demigod anymore. She has no mortal blood in her veins. She is a generated god."_

_Apollo nodded, "So that's great, you're making generated gods, why are you needed then?"_

"_For numerous reasons sun-god," Death said, "You see, both Kronos and Katrina have been experimenting with the idea of raising the dead. That is why I was brought out from my deep slumber in Tartarus. We had been testing out the idea on many, important figures. It has proven very useful. We are able to bring back the people who haunt nightmares, people who are the cause of immense guilt and or mass destruction. It really is interesting, and to see the reaction will be immensely satisfying. See when you bring someone back from the dead, their memory is still there, but it is very easy to manipulate."_

_Apollo frowned, "That's horrible."_

_Death didn't respond but instead continued explaining, "We intend to bring back some of the most ruthless mortasl and turn them into gods. Adolf Hitler, Al Capone, Attila the Hun, Mussolini, Stalin, *Cheng I Sao all greatly terrifying people now who will forever live in infamy. Kronos intends to bring all of them back. They will rein terror as gods; they will reconstruct the world in Kronos's image."_

"_How do you intend on getting all of the Olympian blood?" Apollo asked. "You said yourself that in order to create a generated god, you must have blood of all from all of the gods."_

"_Kronos has an army prepared to take down the gods. We have created an army that even the gods won't be able to fight; more powerful than Typhon this army will be, and you Apollo will be the first to see why." Death then reached out and stroked my forehead._

_Images flashed through my mind; I saw my mother as she collapsed from the snake bite. Artemis and I slew Python the mighty snake but it was too late, I blamed Artemis for our mother's death for the longest time…_

_*Daphne was running from me as I chased after her, cursed from Eros, she did not recognize me and with the help of her father, was turned into a tree._

_I comforted my sister as she cried over the body of her only lover Orion; I was only doing what was best… _

_Suddenly I was ejected from these nightmares, but what I saw when I reopened my eyes was far worse than the nightmares. Three figures stood in the doorway._

I felt someone shaking me awake and the faces of Hermes and Artemis came into my view. I groaned and rubbed my head, I had a splitting headache, and my dream didn't help. "What happened?" I asked groggily.

"Great, he's awake, now can we kill him?" Artemis asked Hermes irritably.

Hermes grinned and turned to me, "How you feeling Percy?"

I groaned again, "I feel like I was just hit by a semi. What happened, we were at the Dusty, Musty, Inn and Stephanie was actually a Gorgon, but I don't really remember what happened after that."

Artemis and Hermes exchanged looks, "You don't remember almost being captured by one of the many Deaths?" Hermes asked.

I shook my head.

Hermes sighed and ran his fingers through his dark hair, "You sort of went bonkers. We were running away from the town when all of a sudden you started running towards one of the shadow creatures. I think you must have thought it was Annabeth because you kept calling her name and running towards the creature. Artemis had to shoot you in the heel with an anesthetic serum. It should have knocked you unconscious but you started crawling towards the shadow creature."

I let the weight of Hermes' words sink into my mind; I vaguely remembered that happening and I shuddered involuntarily. "What about the bright flash I saw?" I asked.

"Artemis appeared in her immortal form." Hermes said, "We've learned one of Death's weaknesses and that is bright lights."

I nodded my head remembering Death sending the other shadow creature to the bright room. Suddenly I remembered what the shadow creature had told Death, "They're sending more-"

"Shh!" Artemis held a finger to her lips her eyes alert and sharp. "We need to keep moving." She whispered.

Before Hermes or I could respond, something jabbed me mentally sending violent images into my head. I could tell Hermes and Artemis experience a similar feeling as they held their heads.

"Run." Artemis hissed to both Hermes and I.

We sprinted through the dark woods, weaving around trees and shrubs as we were attacked mentally by the shadow creatures following us.

I saw Hermes stop as Artemis and I ran past him, "Go!" he shouted.

Artemis grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the shadow creatures and suddenly the forest lit up with a brilliant light. A shrieking sound could be heard coming from the direction of the shadow creatures, and both Artemis and I stopped in our tracks to cover our ears.

A few minutes later, the woods subsided into silence and Hermes rejoined us. He looked exhausted but otherwise unharmed. All of us were exhausted but unharmed thankfully.

"We'll camp here for the night." Hermes suggested as he plopped down on the ground.

Artemis nodded and started up a fire as I drifted off into a fitful sleep.

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**La di da di da... Oh, you're done? Great! Just a few notes before I close up this chapter**

*** Cheng I Sao, an infamous female pirate who had a fleet of I think over a thousand ships, really quite interesting, terroized the Chinese area.**

*** I edited the DaphnexApollo myth just a smidge to make him look more guilty.**

**At any rate, I reallly hope you enjoyed and I hope to update really soon, Remember, questions, concerns, or just wanna say hi? Leave a review! Thanks so much!**

**(Check out Emilys-world-of-disbelief please if you can, on ... pwease! :) once again sorry for the title mix up, and have a nice evening.**

**~ArtemisFrimm**


	14. Quiet Little Voices

**Hi, not much to say except maybe sorry for not updating in forever. Umm, if any of you cared, my stomach is healing quickly. I'm still all scarry, but I can sit up not so yea... uh here is your update, I'm falling asleep while typing this so sorry for not being all hyper like usually. :) Ummm, if you could please check out my story on fictionpress, I'd appreciate it, link's in my profile, Leave a review please, also ,I have a story regarding the relationship b/t Artemis and Orion, it's called Orion so please check it out. Thanks and have a nice night and try to ignore those quiet little voices :)**

**~ArtemisFrimm**

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_In my dream, Katrina was throwing a fit. Death stood silently as, well, death, in the corner of the room, and a balding man I didn't recognize sat in a thrown watching Kat, a bored expression on his face._

"_It's not fair though! You know how much I hate him! Why, out of all of the horrible people in the world did you have to bring __**him **__back?" Katrina asked, tears forming in her green eyes._

"_He is a great fighter and will be a good, how do you mortals say, wake up call, for the son of Poseidon along with some of the other gods. Besides, he doesn't remember anything, only the memories that Death implanted within his mind." The balding man answered._

"_No, you're just trying to replace me! You've always loved him more than me. I'm going to succeed and I don't need his help! I became a __**god**__, and did I need his help? No. I did it all without your precious Luke! Why can't you love me as much as you loved him?" Katrina asked, tears finally spilling down her face as she turned away from the balding man._

_Though Katrina couldn't see it, I could see the bald man roll his eyes before getting off of his thrown and comforting the crying girl. "Katrina darling, I would never replace you. You know that. __**You **__are my pride and joy. When we take over the world I will let you do whatever you like to the gods and Percy. You will have first, as the mortals now-a-days say, dibs, on which gods or mortals you want to punish." _

"_So I can smite Artemis into a gajillion pieces?" Kat asked, a watery smile forming on her face. The man nodded. Kat grinned now, "Good, then I think I'll start with Artemis and finish with my stupid mortal parents."_

"_Good girl Katrina. Now go see how our prisoners are doing." The man said._

_Kat nodded and exited the room, "Yes Kronos. Thank you."_

_Once Kat was gone Death let out the creepiest laugh I've ever heard. "That was quite a display of fatherly affection Lord Kronos. Are you quite sure you aren't growing fond of the girl."_

_The balding man AKA Kronos laughed and rolled his eyes, "Katrina is… a useful tool. She will do anything to feel slightly loved or needed, but that is all she is: a tool. You'll still have to dispose of her along with the others once we are in power." Kronos shuddered, "This body is dying; we'll speak later." Suddenly a dark mist left the balding man and his body crumpled to the ground; dead._

_The scene changed, I was standing in the destroyed courtyard of a small Grecian home deep in a forest. Rubble was everywhere and I could hear a woman screaming. Before I could see what was wrong, a young girl came running out from one of the rooms. She had a silver bow on her shoulder and the largest snake I had ever seen burst through the wall, hot on her tale._

_This snake made the basilisk from Harry Potter look friendly and dwarf-sized. It had fangs that were probably about the size of the girl who looked about ten-years-old. The snake opened his massive jaw and it looked as if the girl would become snake-chow when as fast as thought the girl pulled her silver bow off her back and expertly shot arrow after arrow down the monster's throat._

_The snake reared up one last time before his head fell, nearly crushing the girl and taking out the western wall of the house covering the girl in debris. I instantly ran to help the girl, but my hands passed through the wreckage as if I were a ghost. A few minutes went by and the dust finally cleared and I could see the girl trying to pull herself out from under the ruins of her house. _

"_Apollo!" The girl cried out in a hoarse voice, "Apollo help me!"_

_Realizing Apollo wasn't coming, the girl, who I was assuming was Artemis, began pulling herself out. She let out a cry of pain as her leg, which was bleeding, got stuck under a large rock. Tears were sliding down her face as she cried out again, this time in desperation, "Apollo please help me!"_

_A boy, around the same age as Artemis appeared in the doorway, his face was streaked from crying but when he saw Artemis and the great, dead snake, he ran to help her. He managed to pull his sister out while she cried. _

_When Artemis was finally freed, Apollo shoved her to the ground causing Artemis to gasp out in pain and confusion. "Apollo-"_

"_This is your entire fault! Why did you have to follow me? You were supposed to stay here while I practiced my archery! Why didn't you just stay here?" Apollo shouted at her._

_Tears were leaving streaks on Artemis's face as she cried, "I wanted to come with you! You never let me go with you."_

_Apollo's face contorted in pain and grief as he turned to face his crying sister, "Oh yeah? Well because of you, mother's dead!"_

_The tears continued to slide down Artemis's face but she froze, "What?" she whispered, her voice cracking._

_Apollo began trembling, "You killed her! If you had just listened, Leto would still be alive! If you had stayed here she'd be alive! You killed her! It's your fault she's dead! You kill our mother!"_

_Artemis was shaking her head as sobs began wracking her body, "I didn't!" she cried._

_Apollo began sobbing as well and when Artemis tried moving towards him he pushed her away._

"Would you wake up stupid!"

I groaned and rubbed my eyes, "What?"

Artemis kicked my hand lightly, "Would you wake up already? You're giving me a headache."

I moaned but opened my eyes. It was morning now and a soft light fell through the branches of the trees above me. I sat up and felt a twinge of pain in my back and neck. I groaned and began massaging my neck, "What time is it?"

"Almost nine-thirty and we're still in Minnesota." Hermes said as he cooked eggs (where he got them I wasn't sure) over a fire. "Luckily, we covered a lot of ground since Buglebut. We only have about a nine hour walk in front of us. We should be on our way to LA by tonight."

We finished up our breakfast courtesy of Hermes and then we were on our way, stopping only once for lunch. The whole time I kept thinking about the dreams I had the previous night. I always seem to have the crappiest luck when it comes to dreams. It seems just when I think something is going well, I end up with a crappy prophetic dream.

The first dream I found the most puzzling. Kronos was planning on killing Kat when he was done using her. Knowing this I couldn't help but feel bad for Katrina. Kronos was using her. She just wanted to feel important. I couldn't stop hoping that I may be able to use this information to convince her to forget about Kronos and join our side and help us. I'd have to keep that thought in mind. I wouldn't kill Katrina unless it was absolutely necessary. I'd try to protect her from Kronos.

My mind went on over drive as I thought of the second portion of my dream; Artemis, Apollo, and the death of their mother. Artemis didn't look much younger in the dream then she appeared now. I wondered how old she actually was. She seemed so much less sure of herself, more vulnerable and scared. Unbeknownst to me, I had been staring at Artemis during my entire thought process and she had noticed.

"Can I help you Percy?" she asked.

I was drawn out of my reverie and was surprised to find that it was beginning to grow dark, and I could hear the faint sound of train whistles in the distance. "Sorry, I was thinking."

Hermes looked at me skeptically, "I can honestly say I don't want to know what you were thinking about."

I glared at him but Hermes either ignored it or didn't see it. "How far away are we from the train station?"

"About ten minutes, and let's not try to wonder off this time." Artemis said accusingly.

I ignored her and true to her word, we arrived at the train station about ten minutes later. The station was relatively busy for 6:49 in the evening, so we had no trouble blending in with the crowd.

"I'll go get the tickets, you two go get some dinner." Hermes said.

Artemis and I went to Floppy Joe's Sloppy Joes and Other Fine Sandwiches, Soups, and Salads since 1904 to get dinner. "That is probably the longest name for a fast-food place that I've ever heard." I muttered. A smile flashed on Artemis's lips and she moved up in line and placed our order.

While we were waiting for our food Artemis turned to me, "What were you dreaming about this morning before I woke you up?" she asked.

"Well… umm… why?" I asked.

Artemis cocked her head to the side and studied me before finally saying, "You kept yelling and asking for help. You said that 'she' was going to attack someone."

I frowned I didn't remember that in my dream, "Who was going to attack who?" I asked.

Artemis shrugged, "I don't know it was your dream not mine! You just kept shouting that; 'she's after you, run!'."

I frowned trying to remember anything about that but my mind kept coming up with a blank. When our food was finally ready, we met up with Hermes who was sitting in a recliner chair at a _Starbucks_. "Finally, food!" Hermes moaned in satisfaction.

"When does our train leave?" Artemis asked.

"Eight o'clock." Hermes said between mouthfuls of food.

I glanced at a clock hanging over a payphone; 7:02. In less than an hour I knew we'd be on our way to LA. We'd find out all of the answers to our numerous questions when we got there. LA would be the place for answers. But it could also very likely be the place that kills us. I glanced at the clock again; fifty-seven minutes left.

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Hope you enjoy'd the chapter, ummmm... Questions, Concerns, CC, or just wanna say hi? Leave a review! Thanks so much!

~ArtemisFrimm


	15. Nothing Personal

Heyy y'all, this is kinda awkward but I had a bad case of the writers block. So this chapter is a little awkward... I hope you like it anyway. I'll try to update whenever... Thanks :ED

~ArtemisFrimm

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Our journey was relatively uneventful. We arrived in Denver, our first stop, around ten in the morning. We ate a quick breakfast before boarding our connecting train to LA. Our train was practically empty save for a few reporters, a young man with a fat lip and a black eye who kept glancing around the train nervously, an old lady reading a _Twilight _book, and a young woman with a twin boys who were probably two..

Artemis took a seat in the chair across from me, and Hermes sat next to her. The first hour or so of the ride was pretty boring. Artemis listened to her iPod, Hermes was leafing through a train magazine, and I had been looking out the window as the Colorado scenery flew by.

About an hour later, one of the little boys jumped out of his seat and ran over to the old lady. "You have candy?" the boy asked her.

I don't know what happened after that, but one minute, the boy was happily asking for candy, and the next minute he was on the ground crying.

The kid's mom got up from her seat and walked over to the boy and picked him up, the old lady watched her looking concerned. "I don't know what happened. He just fell over. Poor deary."

The woman shook her head, and some of her mousy, brown hair fell over her eyes as she picked up the child, "Oh Simon, what am I going to do with you? You have to stay seated buddy." She turned to the old lady, "I'm so sorry about him."

"Oh it's no problem deary." The old lady smiled forcefully then returned to her book.

The boy, Simon, wrapped his arms around his mom's neck as she carried him back to his seat. The other boy wasn't there. The woman looked panicked, "Toby," she looked around frantically, "Has anyone seen Toby?"

I looked around and couldn't see the other little boy anywhere. Suddenly, Hermes jumped up onto his seat, reached into the luggage rack and pulled out the other little boy who was screeching with laughter. "I think I found him."

The lady breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh my God, thank you so much." She took the other little boy, Toby from Hermes arms and cradled both of the boys close to her.

"Thank you so much-"

"Peter." He held out his hand for her and she shook it.

"Well thank you Peter. I always get so nervous about them, and they have a knack of getting into trouble." She let out a shaky sigh, "Thank you so much again."

Hermes shrugged, "Eh, it was no problem."

"Why do they make you nervous?" I asked.

Hermes rolled his eyes, "Greg don't be rude."

The lady laughed, "Peter? Greg?" She turned to Artemis, "Let me guess, Cindy?"

Hermes shook his head, "Actually, that's Marcia. Cindy's in Los Angles right now."

The lady was laughing now and her little boys joined in though, most likely they had no idea what they were laughing about. "That's cute. My name's Jenna Miller by the way."

"Nice to meet you Jenna."

"Why do they make you nervous?" I asked again.

"Oh right," she let out a sad laugh, "I guess I'm just a little paranoid, but I had a daughter, eleven years ago. She was kidnapped on Christmas Eve about ten years ago. My husband and I were living in New York at the time I've still not gotten over that. It just scares me that there are so many freaks out there who are willing to kidnap children. I live in Los Angles, but when all of those children began being kidnapped; I left for a while to stay with my mom in Denver. I don't know if you've heard of her, but one of the little girls, Anne Bergoan, she was kidnapped a few days ago. She's my neighbor. She's the age of my daughter, and the two of them used to be best friends." Jenna sniffled a little. "Her mother's a mess. That's why I'm going back. Anne was an only child and her father left them when she was little, so I'm going back to help out. If I can."

"Did they ever find your daughter?" Artemis asked.

Jenna shook her head, "No, they didn't find anything. It was as if she vanished. I prayed for a while; I kept hoping that by some miracle that she was still alive, but it's pretty unlikely I suppose. She was such a beautiful child too."

A bizarre thought came to mind that I had to ask, "Jenna, what was your daughter's name?"

Jenna's emerald green eyes met mine. "Katrina. Her name was Katrina."

A thousand thoughts came rushing to my mind at once and by the stunned looks on Hermes and Artemis's face, I could tell they had come to the same realization that I had. Jenna, the woman standing in front of us, was Kat's mom. "Holy crap." Hermes was the first one to speak.

_Holy crap. _Yea I think that sums up everything that I was thinking.

Jenna looked startled, "What? Do you know something about this?"

Before we could respond, a voice came over the intercom, "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is your conductor Dudley Dirkons and I just wanted to let you know that we will be arriving in Los Angles very shortly. Thank you."

Jenna stood up and took hold of Toby and Simon's hand. "Come on guys, let's go home and see Daddy." She turned back to us, "It was nice talking with you. And thank you again."

"What are the odds that we'd meet Kat's mom on a quest that basically revolves around her demonic daughter?" Hermes laughed.

Artemis rolled her eyes at him and for a moment I was annoyed; the only reason Kat was working for Kronos was because she thought she was abandoned. She thought Kronos was the only one who cared for her when in reality her mother still cared for her and missed her. And Kronos was going to kill her as soon as he got what he wanted. "We have to save her."

Hermes frowned, "Who?"

"Kat. We have to save her from Kronos. If she knows that he kidnapped her and that her mother misses her than she won't help him. If she does help him, than as soon as he's done using her he'll kill her."

Hermes looked slightly uncomfortable and Artemis had a skeptical look on her face. It annoyed me, "What?"

Hermes shrugged, "Will it necessarily be a _bad_ thing if Kronos kills her?"

I was horrified, "Yes! She's just a little kid! It's not like she knows what Kronos plans on doing! In case you missed what I said; 'he's going to use her, and then kill her!'"

"Percy as much as I agree with you, I can't help but think about all of the problems she's caused and will cause in the future." Artemis didn't look nearly as uncomfortable as Hermes.

"I can't believe this, so you'd rather she died?"

Artemis let out a huff of air, "No, but think about it; she's more powerful than a god. Saving her and sending her back to her mom would be murder. Gods have enough trouble keeping their, as you would say, 'powers' under control and we were born immortal. We have had thousands of years of training and Katrina's only been a 'god' for a little over three months. There is no way that she has full control over her powers yet."

I was growing frustrated, "We can send her to camp!"

Hermes laughed bitterly, "And what? Have her 'accidently' appear in her immortal form when someone picks on her? I'd rather _not_ put my kids' lives in danger thanks."

Now I was really irritated. My hands were balled tightly into fists, and I was surprised that I didn't break any skin. "Just because you're both gods, you think you can just toss away a life like it's no big deal; but to some people it is. She has a mom who still misses her, she's got a family, and because of Kronos she never got to know them."

Artemis narrowed her eyes at me, "Since when did you start sticking up for Katrina? In case you forgot, she's kidnapped my brother, my lieutenant, many of the other gods, and your girlfriend, and she tried to kill you!"

"We're in LA." Hermes said, "We'll worry about this later."

Artemis scowled but stood up and began making her way towards the door. As she walked by the old lady with the _Twilight _book, she let out a yelp. She stared at the old lady incredulously, "Did you just bite me?" she asked.

"You are a naughty child. It is my job to bite naughty children." The old lady responded as she got up and stood in front of Artemis, blocking the way out.

"Excuse me?" Artemis's eyes were wide with surprise.

The man with the fat lip got up as well and blocked the other exit. "This is kind of awkward, but you can't leave." He voice was thick sounding because of his swollen lip, and he sounded a little bit like Rocky Balboa.

Hermes narrowed his eyes at Rocky, "What do you mean? This is our stop."

Rocky shrugged, "Like I said, this is kinda awkward, but we were sort of assigned to kidnap you. It's nothing personal."

Oh yea, _nothing personal._


End file.
